Below the Deck
by greedisland93
Summary: Leo is just an ordinary village boy whose daily activity include fishing, going to school, hiking, meditating and doing errands for his doctor foster father, and nothing would please Leo more than just doing exactly that. The fact that he was accidentally being fed the Acid Acid no Mi by his New World pirate captain father won't change that will they?
1. Prologue: part 1

**I've been reading One Piece Luffy met Buggy for the first time and since then I've always been fascinated by the way devil fruit works. So this story is basically about my OC, a DF user, who's trying to find out about his ability while at the same time trying to go about his life.**

**His full utilization of DF is going to be ignored until farther in the story**

**I do not own One Piece **

Prologue part 1

12 years ago

NEW WORLD, below the deck of a Marine battleship stood Marine officers and lackeys alike who were gathering around a table with a detailed Grand Line map sprawled on it, the dank environment of the crowded room seemed to not bother them much. No, they had no time to worry about it because in a matter of minutes their foe would have caught up with them and when they did everything wouldn't have mattered for them anymore. The few surviving Marine officers were intensely studying the map and exchanging information via their mini denden mushi with other ships. while the other listened intently to the ship's navigator quick explanation about the route out of this doomed island their ships were currently anchored in. The navigator wiped a little sweat off his forehead, on an ordinary day he'd just tell them to follow the log pose, in an ordinary day they'd all be laughing, boasting about their 'kills' and having a feast at the canteen after another long and hard day at work saving islands from Pirate attacks. But today was not an ordinary for them, and nothing could have prepared them for this hard reality. Today was the day the entire force of the World Government had admitted defeat to the greatest killing machine in the whole planet. The Golden Lion Pirates.

"From here the only choice we have is to cross the Calm Belt into the North Blue, approximately 5 days sailing, it's the safest route that I could think of" despite the darkness of the room some people could be seen frowning and some explicitly scoffed at the idea.

"You've got to be crazy to cross the Calm Belt! We'll be crushed and eaten by the sea kings!" a skinny officer whose face resembles that of a rat protested.

"There must be another route!" one Marine said, the speaker was well hidden behind the shadows of his hood.

The room was getting irritatingly louder and louder with their "better" ideas before the navigator has had enough and slammed his fist onto the table, cracking the table and launching a candle cup nearby into the air, a Marine caught the candle cup it just in time before it burned the whole map.

"Look at this! This is the last log pose we have!" The originally 3 needled log pose now only have 2 needles, the spot where the third needle was supposed to be in was missing.

One needle was shaking violently up and down, it points to the desert island in which their ship currently docked at while the other needle was spinning wildly about. Any sailor who's sailed all their lives in this part of the sea whould have known very well what that means. It was one of the sailors' worst nightmares and many unexperienced sailors have undoubtedly fallen prey to it.

"It wasn't like that before…" an ensign who was the lowest rank possible in the Marine battleship said, with shaking voice, obviously the young officer were too scared out of his wits that he couldn't comprehend what the spinning needle translates to.

"This spinning needle folks...indicates that island's magnetic wave is very abnormal, it's one of those few islands that's very difficult to find, one day it's normal and then before you even know it, it starts to spin like crazy, who knows when and how long the magnetic wave will go back to normal again! It could take minutes it could take months or years! So tell me does this sound like a better route to any of you?" the navigator looked around the spectators' faces. He didn't want to get them all even more demoralized but he had no choice.

"We have no choice but to cross to North Blue, we'll just have to follow the north star, it is our only chance of ever getting out of here" the navigator said.

"What…what about the sea kings?"

Everyone went silent, even those who were earlier too busy talking to the denden mushi, everybody knows there was no easy answer to that. They didn't know though how hard it was for him to tell them this. To tell them that the best solution is sometimes still worse than death itself.

People started to disperse, some went upstairs, some went back to their posts and some continued with their denden mushi with protests spewing from the other end of the line.

* * *

Minutes later an ensign came running down to the room, stumbled into buckets and other things in the process and opened his mouth after he took some time catching his breath, arm pointing outward.

"There's a survivor in the desert!"

* * *

Now the survivors were well en route to North Blue and so far the weather was the typical Grand Line weather which was usually unpredictable and strange. 1 hour into the journey, the ships have experienced multiple near-miss with icebergs and a couple of rogue waves created by sea monkeys.

"So Lieutenant Hank, whose kid is this?" An old lady, one of the curious passengers onboard asked

"He's my son Leo" He said while stroking the baby's light blond hair, the baby just kept on snoring, oblivious to anything happening around it. She still could see the obvious though as she nodded and smiled at him sympathetically.

"Uhm..sorry..do you know where we're going?"

"Oh you don't know it? We're going to the nearest Marine base, don't worry little one…you'll be safe soon" The lady smiled, then she pulled her blanket up to her nose and turned her back on him.

On the dark and unlit berth, people were huddled together, no hammocks, no ventilation, sub-zero hygiene, he couldn't believe the deck could be filled with this many people…and rats, then, suddenly…the baby stirred and began to whimper, knowing what to expect he tried to rock the baby, cuddle it, sang one of the songs his parents used to sing to him during his childhood and even made some funny faces but to no avail, usually the funny face works but of course he didn't, he probably couldn't see his face_, it was pitch black in here!_. _Maybe the kid misses his mother, can he really felt that? Doesn't he know that I feel the same way too, that I wanted to just curl up in the corner and cry and shout and do anything that could make this suffering a bit easier?_

The crying was starting to get louder, and it wasn't his diaper. People started to wake up, obviously annoyed that their, already disturbing sleep was worsened by the baby's cry. One suggests throwing the baby off the ship, if it wasn't for the darkness he would have beaten the bastard to a pulp.

Not wanting to disturb the others any more than they need to, he went to the upper deck to find if anybody was up, maybe the kid was just hungry, he thought. When he went to the upper deck he was dazzled by the moonlight, it was unusually bright, maybe it was because there were no clouds or fog or smoke that usually covers the sky of this part of Grand Line. The sea was unusually calm. But nevertheless, _you couldn't ask anything better than this in New World_, it felt like he was in North Blue, his homesea, except here's warmer.

"Sir what's wrong with the kid?" the sound from behind him woke him up from his little torpor.

"I think he's hungry, he hasn't eaten anything since this morning" He turned back to see the young and blond ensign which earlier introduced himself as Ensign Ralvos…or was it Rovloo? Anyway the kid ensign looked out of place in this godforsaken ship. He looked like he belongs behind a desk in a lowly Marine post in East Blue with that clean cut and slim figure.

"Well, why don't you go to the canteen? there ought to be some food there, come on I'll show you" he lighted his lantern and he followed the ensign.

"So ensign, are you one of the Marines from the G-5 Marine base? You don't look like one from here" Len asked, he always like to get to know people, especially his potential foes, he believes in the saying 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'

"No Lieutenant Hank I am actually stationed in Enies Lobby"_ Hah! Just as I've guessed_, thought Len.

"Enies Lobby huh? Do you want to be one of them special government agents, what are they called? Chiper pol?" Asked Len, pretending to not know what Cipher pol was when the truth it he's had a few run ins with those 'justice nuts'. His question was greeted by a light laugh from Ravlos. "Maybe, someday…you know Lieutenant…they really have high standards, you have to undergo a real serious training and tests to even be considered as eligible, one step at a time, just by simply fooling around in this part of Grand Line would actually look good on my resume, that is if I survive this"

"Well..you're here right now aren't you? Instead of being one of hundreds of thousands of people who were…you know..left behind…I think it's already a great accomplishment" the ensign just nodded though he was not quite sure if it did much to his already weak spirit "...and please just call me Len, it's what my friends usually call me" he said while rocking the baby back and forth not realizing the baby's been quiet for some time, too preoccupied thinking back about his lover, whom he'd left to die back in the desert. Leo tried to look back at the direction of the island where he left his wife but it was already too far gone.

"Well yeah I guess we're lucky, you're indeed very lucky the doctor managed to save all of your frozen limbs, it would have been really ugly if we had to cut off your legs, thank God for that" speaking of his legs, Len still couldn't move it as flexible as it used to be, He wondered if it was going to be permanent, to which the doctor said if he kept resting and kept it warm it'd function like it was "new"

"Well here's your baby food, just make sure you make it soft enough for it to eat, while I'm going to get my stash of beers, hope nobody's found it, drinking some alcohol always calm me down and you probably need it too" Len just nodded and now in the dark, he started to blindly searching the inside of what seemed to be a crate of fruits, and could faintly make out the shape of a guava which he threw back to the box because it would probably be too hard for the baby to digest. Then he found a jackfruit and a melon, and some weird hairy fruits which he threw back into the box. After taking some time searching for edible fruits his hands found what he's been looking for, grapes. He always liked grapes, it was what his parents fed him when he grew up, in fact his mother planted her own grape trees back then. They always tell him that eating grapes was what made him this big. Standing at 10.9' feet high, he was the biggest guy in his village in North Blue. Of course being big has its pros and cons, the main advantage is that he's naturally stronger but the main problem is, he can be easily spotted, and he's tired to have to bow down every time he walks through doorways and small corridors.

He picked one of the grapes and gently crushed it to bits and pieces and put it on his hand from which he'd feed little Leo with. Well he ate it quite fast and he calmed after gulping the mashed grape, for a normal baby that one little grape would have been enough to overcome its hunger. But not to his, he knew the kid's a monster when he caught him eating a durian single-handedly. Even his so-called 'barbarian' crews wouldn't go near that 'smelly' stuff. Len couldn't help smiling when he remembered that now distant day he once had with his crews as he crushed another grape and fed it to little Leo, hungry too Len took some and ate it but before he could swallow it, he quickly threw it up because it tastes so awful, it was the worst grape he had ever eaten in his life. He worriedly looked at little Leo, expecting for the worst but everything seemed to be alright with little Leo, but he couldn't take chances.

"Sorry it took some time to search for these fine stuffs in the darkness" Ravlos showed up from the darkness only to be greeted by a panicked Len. It wasn't that hard to see with the giant pacing back and forth in the room, cradling the tiny baby and rock it gently. He was clearly someone who wasn't yet used to parenthood.

"What happened?!" Ravlos approached the frantic father hurriedly

"The fruit we ate, I think it has expired!" yelled Len

"What? No way, the box just came out of the ice, I took it out remember? Let me see" Ravlos put his beers away and took a look at the "rotten" grapes, or what was left of it and was certainly appalled at the state of decomposition the grapes was in, he could even faintly make out swirling patterns on it which he dismissed as nothing but shadows.

"Hey I think you're right" Ravlos said, while putting his palm gently on the infant's forehead, checking if the effect has already started. _Still normal_.

"What are we going to do?" asked Len, while cradling the baby, he looked for any sign of poisoning but the baby was quiet as hell, and also he didn't feel anything wrong with him, maybe it wasn't that rotten yet or the effect would probably set in later?

"Just wait here I'm going to wake the doctor" Ravlos stood up from his kneeling position and disappeared in the corner

Meanwhile Len just cradled the baby, singing musical tunes he still remembered being sung to him when he was a child, he didn't know what to do, he was no doctor, fixing dislocated joint or putting on bandages or using alcohol to disinfect wounds (though the method is quite inaccurate and sloppy) was the closest thing Len has to medical skill. Len wished his wife, Vera was here; she'd know what to do, or maybe let him have his ship's doctor back, which he knew were impossible because they were all dead, his crew, his family, all gone.

Not more than 3 minutes later sounds of footsteps came rumbling through the dark and dank corridor of the ship. The doctor, still in his blood stained lab coat quickly took out his stethoscope to check for any sign of irregularities.

"I can do nothing for now, the baby has not shown any symptoms usually associated with food poisoning…but then again the symptoms could begin hours or even days..so until then I can't give you any meds..." the doctor put the stethoscope around his neck. He then reached for his bag when Len with lightning speed grabbed the doctor's hand, visibly displeased by the answer

"JUST GIVE HIM THE MEDS!" He shouted at the startled doctor

"I cannot, I'm sorry, there are many other injured people who need every single medicine we still have left more than your baby does! I can't risk wasting antibiotics just to find out which one is the right one"

"Hey, look at me, look me straight in the eyes and tell me he's going to be okay, then, I'll believe you" Len said seriously, he didn't care the least bit about the injured people.

The doc paused, eyes locked into each other, the doctor took the time to make up his words before sighing. "I can't guarantee it" The doctor hesitantly said.

"…Tell you what, just give me the thing that he ate and hopefully I could find out whether there was something in it or not, that's the best I can do for now…I can't give him any medications YET" Len thought about it for a second and understood that it was the only choice he has, pushing him further would result in him completely refusing treatment for his son and he under this guise cannot afford the attention he'd cause if he sent the doc flying through the decks.

"Alright" Len handed the doctor the remnants of the 'rotten grapes'

"Yep, this is expired alright" The doctor said, putting the grapes right before his eyes for clear view...weird, the doctor thought, he could almost make out a curious swirling pattern on its surface

"Just keep watch on him, let him rest and maybe his immune system will fight it off" the doctor said as he walked away.

"So I guess we can hold the beers for later then…" Ravlos said only to be met with a glare from Len.

"Listen Ravlos this is not enough…" Len said groggily brushing back and forth the dark tangled mess that was his hair.

"Yeah, I'm sorry that your son is almost definitely poisoned, but the doc's right, it's too soon!"

"What if it's not?"

"Well for now just think about how we're going to survive crossing the frickin' Calm Belt!"

"Calm…"

"BOOMMM!"

Suddenly an explosion and the sound of something hitting and solid surface broke the silence of the night, the ship rocked really hard and soon footsteps could be heard outside the canteen toward the upper deck. Hysterical screams of women and children echoed throughout the ship as they realized what was going on. Their ship was under attack!

"BAMMMM!" Another cannon hit the side of the ship, more screams. The ship then rocked wildly and before they knew it the kitchen utensils were already flying around the room. The candle lights flickered ever so slightly.

"Not good!" shouted Ravlos.

**Reviews are always welcome**


	2. Prologue: part 2

A few minutes ago

Somewhere inside the dark recess of the ship the doctor threw his bag and hung his lab coat in the hanger. Then he undid his tie, lit the nearby mounted candle and with a sigh he looked at his wrinkly stressed out self in the mirror, he was relieved that his graveyard shift has ended. Today was particularly hectic and stressful for the 50-something doctor and he doesn't expect it to get any better for the coming days. Today, not only did he have to treat gruesome mortar wounds by amputating it, he also had to do it 10 times faster than the normal time a normal doctor could do a normal amputation on his anesthetized patient or other people will die, at one point he practically just have enough time to cut somebody's arm and left the screaming patient to the 'nurse' for him to stitch and stop the bleeding, anesthetic be damned. Maggots he could stand it, spilling intestines he could handle it but to operate and to be expected to fix all that in an insanely little amount of time in a rocking ship full of people shouting, wailing and other tortured voices with limited anesthetic, painkillers and other important drugs is just outright crazy and the 'Marine sailors-slash-nurses' are only making it worse by spilling blood everywhere!

He didn't know that the ship would be taking this many people, he used to recognize most of the people in this ship after all he's the chief doctor on this vessel with a young resident who looks like he could break under the pressure anytime, but now the majority of the ship's occupants are civilians, crying and clearly traumatized by what just happened to their island, he pitied them but certainly this is not the only boat that could land them to safety is it? The good thing about not knowing them is that he doesn't have to feel a thing when he has somebody putting the dead body of someone's family somewhere in the corner along with other casualties. But what concerned him of all was that the ship's been unable to communicate with the others. What happened to them? Did 'He' give chase and begin to pick them off one by one?

Looking at his throbbing arm he recounted the encounter he just had with a large man and his son minutes ago. There's something fishy about him, he thought. That strength, and that burst of haki, those are not of petty officer level, there's no way a mere petty officer has the permission to be taught and trained with such advanced technic of fighting…and yet from his ID, he is. If only he could get a clear look of his face…

And this expired fruits thing. As if his job hadn't been so stressful enough lately now he has to deal with the possibility of the entire ship's populace getting food poisoning. Surely if the whole barrels were filled with rotten food then it'd only mean that the worst part is yet to come, it's worse than the case of amputation or the lack of sanitation, sick people maybe he could handle but hunger, there's no cure for that except obviously, by eating something, something that's not rotten more importantly. He'll inform the captain first thing in the morning. For now he just needs his power sleep. _Please Dear God just let me have some semblance of sleep tonight_

Then as he prepared himself for his long-awaited 4 hours sleep, he caught something on the corner of his eyes. It's the rotten grape that the large guy's son had eaten.

_It wasn't just a shadow…but…It can't be…the room was dark, but now it can clearly be seen_

He may be a doctor but he's also a Marine, he used to be stationed in the Paradise side of the Grand Line so he knew a thing or two about the infamous devil fruit (in spite of the fact that this is the first time he saw it live, though it is no longer holding the great ability that used to reside within). He knows that the fruit will completely deteriorate once it's bitten for the first time. _How can I have missed this!_

More awake than ever the doctor quickly put his socks and shoes back on and scrambled to the ship's tiny library containing several guidance for live at sea, search and rescue procedure and other Marine stuff about discipline and doctrines especially those about the 'Absolute Justice' and the will of the WG, but most importantly it holds the devil fruit encyclopedia amidst an old one, he's read the newest edition in the HQ's library, but this will do, the encyclopedia itself is quite complete, the difference between the new and old one are the new ones are more complete and have an up-to-date profile of each fruits including its weaknesses and others, though there are still some fruits with unknown weakness which is yet to be discovered and the debunking of a few bogus fruits. Yes there are quite many of them out there, some people are just so desperate for fame and money they'd do anything to have them or squeeze money out of them, including trying to fool people by adding swirling patterns on normal colored fruits. Usually pirates who wish for instant fame and strength fall for this kind of con, the Marine know about the fruits well enough to not get fooled by them.

After some time searching, the doctor found it and as he pulled it out of the shelf a huge thundering sound of something all seamen knew all too well exploded from afar. He quickly braced for support as he prepared for a huge rocking. As he took hold of the closest pole, the sound of woods getting hit by multiple cannonballs erupted in his and every single one of the ship's occupants' ears. The quiet night in a blink of an eye turned into a war zone, with the little Marine personnel left scurrying off to their post, some handle the rifles and ran toward the upper deck where the action will soon begin, some went to the gun decks to score some major damage to the foe's ship, while the ladies and the children screaming and cried as usual.

The doctor however, too curious about the devil fruit, spent the little time he and the rest of the ship passenger might have looking for the answer. Even for a Marine it's quite difficult to decide which is which, the Bara Bara no Mi looks similar If not for the bigger individual grape size. Then there are a few others but overall, devil fruit with grape shape is considered as 'rare'.

Then with countless of matching the fruit with the info on the book, he at last think he's found it, it was the Sui Sui no Mi or the Acid Acid fruit. However, information is scarce, the writer didn't even know whether it should be classified as paramecia or logia, paramecia is more likely thought the doctor. Now all he has to do is to tell the father the good news or maybe bad news, though for now it's more of a bad bad news, but considering the power of the fruit, the kid would be quite an asset for the Marine because…

"IT'S DEFINITELY A DEVIL FRUIT!"

Back in the canteen

"It's _not_ just an ordinary rotten fruit! It's a devil fruit!...and it belongs to none other than Shiki, as in THE Shiki the Emperor from the Flying Pirates" shouted the doctor, with slight pauses for catch some breath. To Len this sort of surprises was expected the moment Shiki, the guy from upstairs came on to the ship and ranted about devil fruit. This is just the kind of misfortunes that the world loves to throw at him for their entertainment, Len thought.

"What is a monster like Shiki who have obliterated and defeated hundreds of strong ability users in his long tenure as the frickin' pirate Emperor doing chasing one mere devil fruit!?" Ravlos said with a disbelieving voice, drowning the sound of the doc's incessant panting…"It's not like he needs the money or have a death wish of eating another DF right guys?"

"Because it's not just an ordinary DF, it's an Acid fruit, I just looked it up in the book about devil fruits, though it has little info about this particular fruit one can assume that with a name like 'Acid devil fruit' the user will be able to devour anything with maybe a single drop of his most powerful Acid, it may even devour the strongest metal on this world, believe me this kind of ability is rare and more destructive than say, Floating Floating no Mi or Gomu Gomu no Mi if there's any…" Explained the doctor after quite a long pause

"…Is it a logia?" Ravlos asked, now with a quieter tone.

"I'm not sure, could be since it's a natural element"

"Hey Len what are we gonna do about this, Shiki's probably not going to react in his best manner when he finds out that the fruit has been eaten by a 2 years old baby" asked Ravlos, he and the doc suddenly remembered about the father and son, the two people that are probably going to determine the future of everyone on board of this God forsaken ship.

"This…is my fault so I'm going to take full responsibility for this…" Len said with a slight tremble in his answer, standing up as he did so. He just can't believe his luck, he just wanted to feed his baby and now he got this whole mess on his hands instead.

Ravlos looked up at the gigantic guy whom he just knew yesterday with awe and silently praised him for his bravery, he (Len) must have known the consequence of crossing a mad man like Shiki is an agonizing painful death and yet he said it like he was standing up against a mountain thug or the likes.

The doctor in the other hand think the idea's not that farfetched. Other than the fact that the guy's not what he said he was, he also could control his haki and from his aura he knew it's one that has been trained for years if not decades. The guy could probably stand a chance against Shiki, but this ship can't possibly withstand such level of fighting. The moment he releases his haki, Shiki with his power will probably just turn this ship upside down and be done with it.

As Ravlos fired away his nonsense questions about the devil fruit, Len stayed quiet, leaning back on the cold creaking wooden wall while trying to determine the few choices he has. With handing his baby out of the negotiation, Len knew his end was nearing. As a warrior he should fight until the last drop of his blood, kill or be killed but he wouldn't want the blood of this ship's passengers on his hand and with a guy like Shiki there'll always be collateral deaths. Not that he thinks he has a chance of winning against a guy who's killed hundreds of thousands of Marines but still…it's not a good death to drag along hundreds of others with him. So the only way to put the passengers and most importantly, his son out of the harms' way is to lure Shiki and his crew away, but how?

"Just how are you going to do it?" asked the doc curiously, there's something on the doctor's face that accentuates his know-it-all attitude.

"Either you give them what they want or you fight them here or fool them" said the doctor again before Len could answer, he knew Len haven't got it yet

"It's the latter isn't it, with your baby in the line of fire…maybe I could help you"

"What?! Len you're not seriously thinking about sacrificing yourself right? I'm sure the captain will reach some kind of resolution" Ravlos said concerned though not surprised, there's no point of saving this ship since the second it enters the Calm Belt, hundreds of sea monsters and sea kings would greet it with open mouths.

"That's right, the resolution would be handing the person who consumed the devil fruit to him" said the doctor, Len's eyes lit up.

"You know what? This is pointless, we're going to die in a few days in the Calm Belt anyway, I don't think you sacrificing yourself is going to change anything…" said Ravlos no longer able to hold his opinion, unknowingly spilling the secret to Len.

"What did you say?…THE CALM BELT?!"

On the upper deck the fight has ceased, the Marines have been wiped clean save for those cowering inside and the injured captain. In the middle of the deck, now full of mangled bodies of the fallen Marines stood a large, golden haired man sporting a maniacal grin. The extraordinarily long golden sideburns, to the goatee , the golden robe with motifs of sunflower adorning it and the super-massive flying ship covering the night sky, that only the Emperor could commandeer he's definitely Shiki the Golden Lion. The usually calm and calculating pirate is now at the peak of his rage. His grin with a cigar pitted between his gnashing teeth only made it even more prominent. His eyes show that there'll be no compassion given tonight if he didn't get what he wanted.

"I ASK YOU AGAIN…WHERE IS MY SUI SUI NO MI!" The golden haired pirate yelled with intimidating voice, it was the exact same second that the doctor standing right beneath the deck found out about the name of the fruit.

The captain, limped slowly to the front of the crowds facing the assailant, he had a cane held tightly by his right hand thanks to a busted kneecap and broken tibia. His aide had insisted him to keep his wheelchair bit he refused to show such weakness in front of an enemy. Now standing face to face with the enemy who's killed many of his comrades and crews he felt nothing of the pain in his legs, he never thought that he'd come face to face with one of the greatest pirate emperors of all times, Shiki the Golden Lion. Him, a mere Marine Captain and Shiki a pirate Emperor and a legend.

"What do you want Golden Lion?" he said with a straight but stern voice, eyes trying to keep up with the pirate's glaring stare.

The pirate grinned, and blew his cigars on the captain's face

"I just want my devil fruit back" The Emperor said with great ease.

"I don't know what you're talking a…" before he could finish the sentence the emperor kicked his broken leg, sending the captain to the ground, he was a bit disappointed that the captain didn't scream in agony, he just grimaced while shooting his bright blue eyes toward the Emperor.

"You know who I am…you ALL know who I am…what I'm capable of…is that not good enough for any one of you to be running here with my fruit?" he stopped to kick the recovering captain in the stomach "As you've seen I'm not in a good mood today so here's the deal, bring me my fruit back or you all die"

He paused to smoke his cigar while looking around at the 'scenery' making people flinched as his eyes fell upon them and it's clear that Shiki relished on that. He knows what kind of effect he had on people and he likes it and uses it very well.

"…and I will…" he continued "…personally make sure there's not any one of you live to see another hour" at the end of the sentence the sounds of crying were getting louder and louder, there were people whispering all around them, talking about how the Marine chose the devil fruit's safety over their lives while the captain unable to do or offer anything could only glare at the killer in front of him as he was being helped onto his wheelchair by his aide. From the starboard side of the Marine ship is the Golden Lion Pirate's famed "ship," though it is more of a sky island than a pirate ship to be exact, laughter of his crews could be heard from it.

But after several minutes have passed nobody came forward with the fruit. The reason behind this is because nobody knows where it is. The fruit itself was stolen by a Cipher pol agent who did not make it on this ship, most probably killed in action, the Marine who placed it in a marked barrel as assigned by the higher up found that the barrel was no longer containing the cursed fruit even after some intense and thorough searching around the room and the entire ship. Some of the survivors on the upper decks began shouting for the captain to hand over the fruit but the matter's now out of anybody's hands. Now the fate of this ship and everyone on board is sealed. Everyone's going to die because of one stupid fruit that almost nobody knows about. But suddenly…

"I ate it, I was hungry" the sentence was followed by gasps from the now relieved audience, a man who until then was only another background spectator suddenly got the spotlight shone on him. Shiki turned his back, a hint of recognition in his eyes. "You want your power? I am your power" Len stepped forward.


	3. Prologue: part 3

"Ah…we meet again Lieutenant…" the Emperor at last said after finishing his examination of Len's Marine officer's costume "…or should I say…FORMER Captain Pirate Leonard Fis Rendish the Ironade Butcher!" It was followed by gasps and whispers from the spectators as they found out that 'Lieutenant Hank' is actually one of the most wanted rookie and warrior from Iron, North Blue 'Leonard Fis Rendish'. A guy that everybody thought has been dead for years when the infamous barbarian Pirate crew reportedly perished, swallowed by a giant tsunami in a great battle against the then newbie Whitebeard crew.

_Damn he remembers me_

"So you ate it?" Shiki said raising his eyebrow, this guy's always been stupid but he never knew he's this stupid by stealing and consuming his devil fruit. He's undoubtedly got unresolved issues with this guy, this lowlife has killed several of his prized subordinates so imagine how upset he was when he found out that he'd not been among the dead back in the island but now here he is looking as healthy as ever, standing with that smug smile of his in front of him for him and him only to kill and suddenly he found his thirst for avenging his fallen comrades has been greatly reduced. _He only dared to do this because he thinks he got power over me_. _He purposefully made his new-found DF fruit power as his bargaining chip out of this doomed Marine ship, he's quite smart for a stupid guy._

"It's intriguing that a ruthless man like you, is willing to give himself up for these petty civilians" Shiki said, still with that ambiguous smirk on his face. Len knew this guy hasn't made up his mind yet but he better be because under that gaze of his he's afraid his bravado act is going to fall apart soon. If he could see it for just a second, he and his son are done for. That's what makes a Pirate like Shiki stand on a whole different level than others, people like him know when they're being lied to, they just have to if they want to remain at the top.

"It's not them Shiki, it's my hunger for power…I am done beating your lowlife lieutenants over and over again I want to move on to the big fish…killing you is a start, the effect haven't set in yet, so I don't know what it might be, but if it has, you'll be the first to know I assure you" He tried to say it as if he really was the one stupid enough to eat it and seeing how honest of a man he is, it took a lot of effort.

Despite the storm it was relatively quiet at the moment. With Shiki stroking his beard appraising Len. It's all in his hands now like it's always is. It's a difficult choice he's facing right now and he wants to make sure he's got the best of both.

"Alright then I believe you" Shiki stopped stroking his beard while Len still with his cool act to disguise his relief "what are you waiting for? Off you go then!" the Emperor gave a pat on Len's shoulder. Len felt something powerful pulling on his shirt and before he could do anything he already found himself plunging to the raging sea below dropping face first into the dark cold water.

"Oops! Me and my silly power again!" onboard of the Marine ship Shiki's mood seems to have lightened up a bit, the exclamation was followed by laughter from his crews. He did it on purpose of course to check if the 'Lieutenant' has really consumed the devil fruit or not. "I want the divers team looking out for him down there" then he gestured for the rest of his crews to watch the surrounding water for any sign of Len resurfacing while he himself still deeply in thought.

Shiki knew he was gambling here, if the guy really ate it there's a big chance he'd drown along with his power, if he lied he'd get one of the strongest and worthy rookies the opportunity could provide him, but still that means he had lied to him and the Marine still get to have the fruit though they won't survive Calm Belt nor will they survive in New World even without him intervening…so there's got to be some kind of punishment for his lie, Shiki thought. He figures he could use that guy's strength and mastery of haki in his planned coercion of a certain pirate Captain into joining his quest against the world but what would his crews' reaction be if he employed a guy who's decimated countless of their friends as one of his right hand men? Damn, this is confusing; being a leader he's got to decide fairly for everybody! Maybe he should pass his role to Indigo instead? No. Bad idea. Well his crews did say that he could never think straight in his 'rage streak', maybe he should get some rest first. But then, what's he going to do about the Marines? He just doesn't like it when the Marine gets their way like that, stealing his hard-earned devil fruit, possibly to give it to some weakling and make it turn against him or his friends, he can't let that happen as long as there's a 0.00001 chance of them surviving the Calm Belt, not when the possibility of preventing or even retaking it is still within his reach. _Well if I can't have it then no one can_!

His crew was right he can't think right with all this…rage and exhaustion, he's already spent from the days-long war, today just this day he's going to let fate decides for him. For now he could live with 0.00001 chance.

"Alright I'm done for the day" it was responded by a disbelieving look from everybody onboard the ship. The poor civilians couldn't believe that the Emperor would just let them go like that, but either way they're really grateful and started cheering amidst secretly "Cap'n go on steady now, from what I seen from up here a hail storm is nearing" Shiki said as he climbed back to his ship and motioned for his crews to continue to look out for Len. As the Marine ship wobbled away, the massive ship was still visible on the horizon, steadily floating a little over the ocean like an island…fishing something out of the water…

Later on the ship

The doctor rushed from one dismembered body to another as he frantically tried to search for any sign of live from the earlier massacre. He'd also dispatched everything who can walk to help the survivors as best as they could. _Damn it, they didn't call Shiki 'killing machine' for nothing!_ The doctor thought as he learned how precise and effective Shiki's attacks are from the wounds of the bodies. All the stab wounds never missed an inch from his target's hearts or arteries, lessening the doctor's hope for any survivor. Suddenly he heard the sound of someone sobbing; with his hope restored he quickly went to the source of the cry to find none other than Ravlos on the floor with a bloody lifeless body of what he figured as his friend on his lap. Both of his hands on his friend's chest trying in vain to put pressure on his friend's wound.

"Let me check" the doctor kneeled down to check for any pulse without waiting for Ravlos' response for good measure. Both men knew with a wound like that and the blood stained clothes it was too late for Ravlos' buddy. In fact it's been too late since the second Shiki's anti-gravity blade pierced through his buddy's heart like it was a thin piece of paper.

"HE GOT MY FRIENDS! I SWEAR I'M GONNA WIPE EVERY LAST STINKING PIRATE OUT OF THE SEA EVEN IF IT COSTS ME MY LIFE!" Ravlos wiped his nose with his bloody arm while trying to calm himself, his eyes still full of anguish and rage stared at the sun rise beyond. The two guys just sat there among their fallen comrades on the middle of the deck, silently. The doctor knew all too well how the feeling of losing one's friend felt. It's one of the crucial steps of building a powerful Marine soldier. He's realized this the hard way a long time ago and for now the best response is just to cry it all away.

2 days later…

Sounds of people arguing and whispering in the background from the upper deck woke the doctor from his short sleep. The storm is still raging outside so what are those people doing up there? Are they crazy? Is Shiki coming back? Did he realize that he's been fooled? No, if he had the ship along with the rest of the crews would have been in the bottom of the sea by now. _No he's not the problem, Len did a terrific job, that guy…which means there's another problem…great…just great, just what I need_. Talking about problem, he needs to feed the late guy's son now that he's under the doc's care.

Lazily, the doctor got up from his comfortable hammock, shrugging his back before putting on his rounded glasses before his tired watery sleepy eyes, his battered shoes and found that the kid's still wide asleep beside him in a makeshift hammock made out of his thin blanket. _For a kid who's trapped in a doomed voyage to hell with a bunch of strangers he sure is quiet! Let's see if there's milk in the canteen_. There the doctor went, not bothering to put on his blood stained lab coat or comb his wild black hair like usual which leaves him with his ragged black trousers a size too small for him and his signature faded crimson and black 'punk' striped t-shirt.

"Hey anybody got milk?" the doctor opened the door toward the upper deck. Only to be ignored by the crowds who seemed to be occupied with something else. Figuring that they probably couldn't hear him in this raging storm he approached the commotion with his one of his hands protecting his face from the strong gust of wind.

"We need to go back! This is suicide!" were some of the yells that the doctor could make out, spewed forth from the mouth of the bewildered civilians at the frustrated captain on the bridge.

"We won't survive Calm Belt!" yelled another survivor

"I'd rather be back on that island with Shiki's goons than be eaten alive by sea monsters!" shouted another frantic voice, followed by nods of approval from everybody. "Shiki might be a monster, but he and his goons aren't THE monster!"

"If you got any functioning log pose then please be my guest! Because as long as you're in my ship, you follow by MY rules" blared the Captain in a rare act of authority, already knowing that nobody got any, knowing fully well that they think they wouldn't need to since these people trusted the Marines to bring them out of safety only to be met with a shocking news that the only way to safety is by them having to go through another kind of hell. Well, they didn't know that this wasn't in any part of the Marine's plan…it wasn't supposed to go this way but it did…The Pirates were so strong it annihilated most of their battleships along with the Vice Admirals and other Marines including the Cipher pol agents. The Marines had greatly underestimated the strength of the flying Pirates who had somehow managed to bring almost every Pirate in New World into their fold. The Marines thought it was impossible for anybody to tame these pirates of New World but he, Shiki the Golden Lion disproved that.

"You don't understand, we can never go back, the New World is not safe anymore with the Golden Lion Pirates stronger than ever and the absence of authorities, it's only a matter of time before they destroy another island and then another, we have to get out of here while we can! This is our only way out" the Captain tried to reason with the nervous civilians below.

"BUT if you want to go back out there then I'd be glad to provide you with some lifeboats, I'll even give you this only log pose I have since I won't be needing them anymore" he gestured to his navigator to take off the log pose from his wrist. Feeling that he, at the very least, owe his passengers the right to choose their way to die.

Some men stood forward, a man large burly man grabbed the log pose and proceeded with his group to get a lifeboat and some food.

Realizing that the time has come to give them some sliver of hope, the doctor came forward "If I could please get your intention!" The doctor stepped in while clapping his hands to, well…get attention

He fished something out of his pocket and showed it to everybody on the deck "Do you know what this thing is? This bracelet is made of pure sea stone, before Len gave himself up for the safety of all of us he told me about one possible way to cross the Calm Belt safely" his raspy voice untarnished by the huge rain storm while holding the aforementioned stone bracelet. It was loud enough to gain the attention of the men who were previously busy opening the tarp of one of the lifeboats.

"Take something made of sea stone close to you, it'll radiate something that makes the sea monsters stay away from you, you do that you're safe, that's all what he said to me" reminiscing the scene he had with the late Len. It was fast, he didn't even fully get the answer when he asked him as to where did he get such an idea. As from his looks he can't be a scientist or a genius for that matter. But he better be right, it was the deal, he give the doc a way out of this predicament the doc will make sure his baby's safe in his care. When asked how in the hell could he trust a guy he just barely knew he just casually said that he got a good instinct. It was either him or Ravlos, but figuring that the guy had a whole live ahead of him in Enies Lobby he said he's the better choice to take care of his child. What a guy…

"How's that supposed to work?!" one of the guys who were unraveling the lifeboat asked, approaching the whispering crowd once more.

"I don't know but you've got to trust me on this! Just do it fast if you want to live, Calm Belt won't be far now and we have to quickly abandon ship as there won't be enough sea stone to protect the whole corner of the ship!"

Seconds later the crowd quickly dissipates, some guys still continued to grab some lifeboats while the other ran frantically to grab some sea stone. It's not surprising. Though reputedly rare, sea stone bracelets are actually the 'hip' accessory to wear in New World. It's not just hip, legend has it that it could negate fruit users' ability. _Well this is going to add to the dozens of other rumors regarding the ability of the so-called 'magical stone'. That is if any one of us survives to tell the tale._

"Hey just out of curiosity, if this plan does not work, what's our chance of getting out of Calm Belt?" asked the doctor as quiet as possible as to not make the crowds go back to their hopeless state.

"Hmm…2 out of ten maybe, never more" the Captain said as a matter of factly. If the deck hadn't been so loud with people running and shouting around the Captain would have heard the doc's gulp.

"Some folks who don't have sea stones, I have one in my quarter, for the rest of you…my aide's going to lead you to the armory where you can grab some sea stone made cuffs…just don't put it around the both of your wrists or you'll be handcuffed for real heheh" said the limping Captain as he went back to his quarter.

"What about you?" the doctor asked as he followed the Captain into his quarter. The quarter is quite big and lofty too, in his 2 years working in this ship he rarely goes in here as the Captain usually mingle with others in the canteen or 'the longue', he was surprised at how soundproofed the room was aside from the occasional sound from the dangling chandelier above. The desk on the far side of the room is filled with paperwork, one of those paper is a wanted poster for one 'Mikio Itoo'. There's a large red oriental carpet on the floor, aside from the general map of New World with various dots and lines strewn across the map, a large painting of a woman with regal pose and elegant pink low-cut dress are hung across a set of windows with classical facade displaying the storm outside. There are some tall bookshelves behind his desk storing the Captain's expedition journals and collections. The Captain surely is a man of knowledge.

"Heh?" The Captain just turned his head to take a glimpse at the doctor.

"Aren't you going to grab some for yourself?" to which the Captain laughed "my job is done here doctor…I've lost most of my men…and soon I'm going to lose my one best nakama, one that I've been working on since I was only a deckhand…" He said as he ran his hand gently across the quarter's wall.

"While you doctor…" he said as he continued his walk toward the safe in the corner of the room "you still have that kid you have to take care of, a kid of a hero, another casualty of this bloodbath that I've failed to do anything about…it's your duty now" The Captain said as he opened the lock of his safe and limped outside to give some of his sea stone supplies. Some of it was quite unique. A sword with the handle adorned with sea stone ornaments, guns with sea stone tip and a square handcuff. _What kind of hand is expected to go in there?_ The doctor thought.

"You're a fine man Captain, I wish I'd known you sooner" The doctor said as the Captain passed him by, the Captain only replied with a nod.

A quarter hour later the edge of the black storm could be seen, the edge of the Grand Line…Calm Belt. For the naked eyes the straight line of the border could clearly be seen, black, raging sea from their side and calm, sparkling, blue water beyond the line. Spanning from the edge of horizon to the other, the Calm Belt divided the Grand Line from the rest of the sea, dividing its cloud, wind, storm and the sea current itself. Over there where the sunlight reaches even to the deepest trench of the sea and the still sparkling water begs to be explored is said to be the gate to the 'other side' itself where every journey and dreams end. It's the way out, the only way out of Grand Line's wilderness they said. For Grand Line Pirates this is the inevitable.

On the Marine ship

"Alright this is it people! Lower the lifeboats and prepare the sea stones, remember! Keep them in the water where the sea monsters can sense them!" yelled the doctor as he helped a group of survivors on to their lifeboat. The Marines anticipating for the Calm Belt went aloft to set the sails.

"Report Captain! We managed to get hold of Vice Admiral Andreas and 2 other ships, we've informed them about the sea stone possibility" said his aide after saluting him.

"I've checked everywhere like you requested, all civilians aside from those who chose to stay are aboard the lifeboats Sir!"

"Good work Master Chief Petty Officer Nyasa, now you and the rest of the Marines go with this last lifeboat" the Captain motioned them to one lifeboat which is still tied to the main ship.

"You should go first Sir" said his aide

"Nay, I believe at a situation like this…the Captain should be the last to leave" with that the Marines understood, it's that silly 'code of conduct' again, despite the life and death situation the Captain still holds the ancient sailors' deeply rooted 'code of conduct'. They could never understand such silly code as it's against human's most basic instinct, instinct to survive, to live. But then that means there's nothing anyone can do to budge him so they relented and started to climb down one by one, the last being the doctor with Len's baby. The baby's been crying since he woke up, he's tried everything but to no avail. He just hoped that he got enough milk onboard the lifeboat.

"There's no way I'm getting you out of this is there?" The Captain just smiled while placing both of his hands on the doctor's shoulders.

"Goodbye doctor, raise him well will you" the bearded Captain patted his shoulders.

As the doctor and the baby reached the bobbing lifeboat below the Marines started to shout for their Captain, shouting that it was his turn but the Captain just looked from above, from his ship and with a blade cut the rope in one swing.

"CAPTAIN WHAT ARE YOU DOINN'?!" the aide shouted even louder followed by the rest of the Marines and also an amplified cry from Leo, as the boat parted from the ship. The Captain just saluted them for one last time from the bow of the ship, put his hand down and turned his back. The battleship's getting smaller and smaller in the horizon even though nobody bothered to row, even though there was no wind, it's as if something had made it impossible to go back.

Then suddenly there were swarms of sea monsters and serpentine sea kings seen swimming smoothly with their huge fins and slick skin beneath the water around the ship, a large pink sea king that looks like an eel with an afro started the attack by striking the ship from the port side, as a result woods and ship parts flew everywhere while the ship tilted to the left. Then everybody could only watch as another sea king jumped the ship and crushed the deck, making it split in two as it went, sinking it effectively. A loud grating voice could be heard overlapping the sea kings' howls as both parts of the now destroyed ship got pulled down into the depth of the sea by the sheer force of the monsters. Then giant tentacles could be seen rising from the sea wrapping itself around the masts, entangling them and any parts of the ship still floating above the surface and forcefully pulled them down. A loud dull sound followed by a huge splash of water was produced as the giant mast gave in to the pressure and broke the water surface. It took a lot of effort for the trembling Marines to not just let the seat stone go and cover their faces wishing that it was all just a dream. Then just as soon as it started, it ended, the ship has disappeared from the surface, with only tiny ripples and bubbles coming from below marking the spot where a giant battleship just less than a minute ago sailed strong among the wide calm sea. There was no longer any sign of battleship or sea kings in the area. Everything's gone and the sea stone did its job.

Some of the lifeboats survived the sea and 5 days later a rescue ship would come to their rescue. While it's a little too late for some, the Marines, some civilians, the doctor and the very healthy baby Leo got rescued.

In an island somewhere in North Blue, the doctor sat on a warm white sandy beach still in the same costume he wore the day he left the ship. The people that have made it to the North Blue are now quarantined for identity checks and treatments of injuries. Meanwhile the doctor sat there with a now calm blond baby on his arms, stroking its silky velvety hair while looking at the wide horizon spread before him, a smile at the corner of his thin lips. He's made it. They both made it. He's never felt so grateful before in his life and this is all thanks to him. Now he remembers it clearly.

**_days ago**_

"Wait, before I go in keep this safe" Len said, taking off the bracelet that's been adorning his wrist since forever.

"What's this for? Where did you get this sea-stone bracelet?"

"I got this off some scientist kid in a winter island somewhere, he's a genius, said sea-stone radiate something that could do something to the sea monsters…keep this submerged for full effect…but remember the stone only covers limited area, so you need to get on the smaller lifeboat for this to work…and listen, all of this is for your word…" Len said as he put on the bracelet on the doc's wrist, now it looks out of place with the bracelet dangling from the doc's wrist, clearly it's made for bigger arm.

"My word?" the doc turned his head back toward the giant

"Your word that you'll be keeping my son safe"

**And it's a wrap for the three chapters long prologue!**

**Hope you enjoy it **


	4. 12 Years

12 years later in the Northern Sea

The village of Iron Home is a not so-quiet little village in the middle of the Kingdom Thule. The village is bordered by the Iron strait to the north and is isolated from the rest of the kingdom by the Wolves Mountain. The name of the village derives from the residents' occupation as blacksmiths, swordsmith and anything related to the making of anything metal such as swords, shields, armor and axes. That is why despite the 'village' status the place is quite loud from the clanking of hammers and other activity of metalwork making it even more undesirable for tourists from around the kingdom to visit the otherwise picturesque place.

The 'Ironades' as what outsiders call people from the village are also famous for its fighting technic, warriors were its second export after ironworks and the Ironades are proud of it. Though it's all ancient history now that North Blue has advanced toward peaceful and harmonious relationship with its neighbors the fighting technic of the ancient warriors are still preserved from one generation to the other and is regarded as one of the most prized fighting technic taught in the 'Royal Military Academy' to the highest ranking of knights. The large statue of 'Jorgam the Ironade' the most famous among the ancient Ironade knights still stood tall in the middle of the village's square to commemorate the village's great past. Aside from its history there's nothing unique about the village overall, it's just like any Northern Province village with the typical Mountain (Bavarian) homes and views of the soaring mountains surrounding the seaside village that the elders said to be the place where the ancestors trained their kids into becoming formidable warriors like they were always remembered now.

And now at the present time, the place's history is relived once more.

In a small secluded waterfall cavern at the foot of the Wolves Mountain Leo stood tall meditating beneath a waterfall, sun from above shining down on him and the entirety of the cavern. Contrary to what one would expect from a meditating man Leo's expression shows uneasiness and frustration. Abruptly the boy's eyes snapped open "It's useless! I can't feel anything…I think all the fighting techniques you've been teaching me for all these years will suffice" complained the tall young teenage boy. The boy who no less than 12 years ago couldn't do nothing but sleep and cry has now grown into a dashing lively teenager while still retaining his blonde hair and light green eyes which childhood girl friends of his said 'easy to the eyes' every time during class or just simply when he passes by them in town_. Said that if I wasn't such a martial art maniac they'd consider dating me, which is ridiculous because they've been taunting me since I was a kid for having 'imaginary' friend._ He tilted his head to get as much water out of his ears as possible while wondering why he suddenly reminisced about his childhood when without warning his head got struck by a powerful flying kick from the side which sent him back to the little lake beneath the waterfall with a splash.

"That…is why it's not enough!" said an old man, who despite his age apparently still more than able to deliver some deadly blow.

"You keep saying about this tricks about how I could use my aura or haki or something to sense surprise attacks like that and it's been 3 months and I don't feel anything!" the young teenage boy argued, after finally regaining his balance and muttering several curses under his breath.

"I know it takes time, just don't give up, do you think I would have done all this if in the end it wouldn't help you?" said the old man handing the kid some towels for him to dry himself up.

"I just don't get it how this is an essential criteria to be a Nordhaim (North home) guard…I faced one once and he was worse than a kindergarten kid!" ranted the teenage boy as he dried his hair off and changed into a set of fresh clothes which consist of a typical white gi (karate uniform) complete with its belt.

"Yeah? and could you remind me how much money did it cost just so you can boast about it in this wide free world instead of in some subzero cell in the Northern Continent? I think that's enough for today, I have to go to town again to attend to my patient…it seems like Ms. Moerden's headache is even worse this time, I may have to give her stronger medicine…here's some food and there's more in the fridge" He said as he stood up

"Thanks dad" said the young teenager, he unwrapped the box to find his favorite meals which he chomped it down right away, well it couldn't be helped could it? 5 days of meditating is quite a long time.

"Ah I just remembered…Leo could you go to the town for me please, I've got these special concoctions that I need to make, I've written all the ingredients you need to buy on this list and here's the money, feel free to spend the excess" Leo opened his mouth to speak but afraid of the repercussion of talking with his mouth full, he quickly swallowed the food in his mouth and blurted "I thought you were going to the town!" to which the doctor's eyes widened "Not that town! Besides it's good for your training" he argued as he hurriedly stepped out of sight "If I found you in that town you'll have to buy me any food I choose! You hear me?"at that the doc quickened his pace. "Can I at least take Banshee (the family's horse) with me?" "Not a chance!" the doc's yell echoed throughout the walls of the cave.

An hour later Leo arrived in the town, after bidding the fine farmer who gave him a lift to town farewell Leo proceeded to the raw ingredient store a few blocks away from the main street. The resort town with its hot springs and hiking trails is famous within the kingdom as a retreat for people from the capital. The town itself, named Wolves Peak is actually not that much larger than Iron Home, the village he resides in but it's growing faster since it's nearer to the center of the Thule Kingdom so most of the aristocrats and citizens of the capital prefer to take vacation here, and also for the fact that it's quieter and the summit of the Wolves mountain offer great views of the capital, Gylfenhaim. For scientists, alchemists, doctors, illegal logger and some weird cults the mountain also contain a vast amount of plants, ores, woods and creatures that they often use as ingredients, income or rituals that are not available or offered in anywhere else in the kingdom, but to save time it's better and safer to buy them at shops since some of the plants grow in the edge of cliffs, the depth of caves and other dangerous and secluded places, and also nobody wants to end up picking the wrong shrooms because it looks similar.

After approaching and asking all of the ingredient shops lining the street Leo couldn't seem to find 2 more ingredients. These two are beeswax and some 6 leafed clovers. The first one he could grab some from the bees' farm further down the road, but the clovers, that's got to be rare.

Minutes later on his way down from the bees' farm he decided to take the scenic route where he hoped to find some clover leaves. Then he found some and looked for the 6 leafed ones.

After minutes of looking Leo shrugged his head in frustration "Man that thing is rare and this is tiresome!" he kept following the wild arrangement of the leaves not realizing that he's trespassed into somebody's lawn. He looked up when he saw two pair of shoes in his line of vision.

"What are you doing?" said a tall, bald stalwart man looking down at him with black suits. Arms folded.

"I was just looking for some 6 leafed clovers, is this your lawn or something?" he asked visibly annoyed. Without bothering to answer the bald guy reached his mini denden mushi and told the receiving end that someone was "spying on the Lords."

"You're going to have to come with me"

"No way, you want to get beaten or something? Look why don't you just let me go so I could find the damned clovers somewhere else" He said, it's going to be dark soon and he wouldn't want to be lost in this scenic route. Besides he wants to get back to town and start the hunt for the sneaking doctor. His planned fanciful diner depends on this.

"Sorry but no, what you're going to do is follow me and drop the load of that bag you got there and you're free to go IF you're proven to be telling the truth" said the guy remaining unmoving.

"What if I refuse?" Leo said, deciding that the guy need to get some ass-kicking to deliver his point to this bald headed wise-guy.

"Then you shall suffer" said the guy with a smug smirk, the bald guy's clearly underestimating him.

"YOU'RE UNDERESTIMATING ME!" He said as he swung his best punch toward the guy's head only to be met with nothing but air. The bald guy avoided the sudden attack swiftly by ducking down and just as quick as he dodged the punch he seized Leo's neck around his arm, choking him and forcing his head to rest on the bald guy's shoulder and then he delivered an unbelievably powerful knee thrust up his gut. Even with years of defense training Leo couldn't get past his shocked state which led him to be kneed in the gut again and laid crippled on the ground like a weakling. Nobody has ever dodged his punch like this guy did. Normal punch a guy or two could manage to dodge or countered it in his lifetime but not with surprise attack like this. This guy practically knew he was going to attack his at that exact moment! That's impossible in every aspect…

"Now it makes it easier for the both of us isn't it? it seems like I've overestimated you" Leo could only look from the ground as he began to search his bag.

"Here's your bag back, nothing but a bunch of garbage and with that kind of combat skill I'm sure even if you were a spy you wouldn't ever get near to the Lords…so what are you, some kind of shaman or something? If you are, you're a lousy one…now…" the bald guy paused to straighten his tie "if you've finished being a weakling get the hell away from here, this is a private property you understand?" the bald guy chuckled and walked away. For once in his life Leo could only look at his foe walk away laughing as he lay there writhing on the ground, cursing at himself for being such a loser.

Meanwhile at the back of the private mountain retreat

"Isn't that a little bit much…using haki on someone who clearly doesn't have any control of his?" said a fit middle aged man with greying hair on the backyard patio of the vacation mansion. The man was sitting behind a little girl who's only a tiny fraction of his size, she was wearing a little karate suit one size too big, his palms a little over the girl's back.

"Ah, I'm sorry my Lord… It wasn't my intention to, the moment he was about to punch me i sensed some suspicious aura from that boy, it's as if he was a fruit user…it somehow forced me to activate my haki, I couldn't take chances…" said the bald man apologetically. The man just nodded and smiled weakly.

"Maybe you should train more" the man said, dismissing him without turning his attention from the little girl in front of him. He knew the bald man which is one of his three head guards he employed have some temper issue, it sometimes become a liability to him to have such short fused subordinate but the guy's quite experienced being a former Rear Admiral of the North Blue division of the Marine.

"Ouch daddy that's too much!" said the girl as she jerked her back away from the pair of hands behind her back.

"Sorry Honey, I was a little bit distracted, let's start again shall we"

1 hour later

"ZAMMITTT! That guy beat me like I was nothing!" he muttered the barely intelligible words to the doc, now back in their house, lying in the doc's clinic bed while pressing a bag of ice on his gut where the bald guy landed his blow on earlier.

"That's horrible what that guy did, it was definitely a haki imbued attack, just look at this mess! You're lucky you could walk back here without passing out with this kind of bleeding!" the doc just came back from gathering the equipment needed to fix his child up.

"How…h…how bad izzit?" said Leo as he tried to shift his body so it won't hurt so much

"Bad, the bruising is only getting larger, I think I'm going to have to operate you, here take this pill it'll prevent your blood from clotting" he gave the suffering kid the pills and went on to grab some blood for some transfusion and some anesthetic as it's going to be messy. _What kind of bastard would use a haki attack on a defenseless kid like him, this is exactly why people shouldn't teach haki to everybody!_ Everybody knows that if you used haki on a completely clueless and defenseless person the pain would be nothing short of agonizing, it's like a gunshot without there being an actual bullet hole, because the haki itself is the bullet destroying everything on its way. As a result of that among its practitioners there's some kind of tacit agreement that haki should only be used as a last resort. You just don't go around punching and kicking the town thug with haki.

"My God! am I gonna die now?" Leo said breaking the doctor's thoughts as blood began seeping from Leo's mouth again.

"No not under my treatment you won't" he connected the blood bag to the plastic pipe to be later infused to the boy's blood vessel.

"I'm sorry dad…if I had been more serious I could have beaten that guy" to which the doc just smiled, the kid's years too early to think about beating anybody with that level of strength.

"Steady now, I'm going to get you under" It was the last words Leo heard before he went to a deep sleep.

_**Flashback**_

"As I said, to be a formidable soldier you have to be beyond your enemies, true you could punch and kick some of them into oblivion but there are some other foes that are just so strong…or stupid that no matter how effective your defense and attacks are they always find a way to land powerful blows on you. If that's the case you have to know when and where are they going to attack, how are you going to counter it and more importantly finding out their weakness, everybody has one and you could do that by making the best out of your aura, your haki. This is the last chapter of my teaching which will take the longest time for you to learn. This is going to be a great test for your patience and most importantly your will. So observe carefully…" the doc's palm slowly touched the surface of a huge boulder and then it started to crack, starting from the part where his palm touches the boulder and spreading and branching outward producing bigger cracks. In no less than 10 seconds the huge boulder has been transformed into no less than a hill of pebbles.

Right then and there Leo woke up from his sleep, with half of his abdomen still bandaged having not fully recovered from last night's surgery. He quickly put his bracelet back on, ripped the IV off his wrist and got up from his bed.

"Hey where do you think you're going?" the doc was outside in the middle room sipping his morning coffee as usual, newspaper in his hand. He was surprised that the kid could even move as he just concluded the operation hours earlier.

"I'm going to the waterfall!" Leo said while putting his robe back on.

"I know I can't stop you but please have some breakfast first, I've prepared it there on the table along with some medicines that you must not forget to take!" he was wrong to think that's going to stop him from leaving the house as he heard the front door being swung open.

"LEO COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANCE!"


	5. The Art of Haki

**Hi**

**This chapter will entirely be comprised of Leo's haki training**

**As you'll see some of the 'haki' features aren't entirely those shown in the real OP world, this version of 'haki' is actually consist of real world's qi concept and other interesting inner energy concepts from various mangas, 'Hunter x Hunter' being the most prominent one here, i ripped off the names and most of the concepts from Togashi's idea, but don't worry i'll explain all the terms in this chapter, i just want you to know that this idea is not original from me.**

**Please enjoy**

"Haki is energy, a life force that powers every living thing in this world, however most people don't know of its existence, well technically they do believe that some energy is keeping them alive but that's that, they never get so far as to realize that there's so much more to this energy than it's given credit for. The few others however have tried and failed, some managed to use it without realizing that they've found it and only few who could see it with their own eyes. If a person has managed to see his haki it's only a matter of time before he manipulates it for his own purpose. Like I just did to that boulder, what I did was, I focused all of my energy in one part of my body which was my palm and then launched that energy to the boulder. But that requires another training…before going any further you need to be able to see your haki first the most conventional way to make your eyes able to see it is by feeling it first, once that happens the rest will follow…to feel it you need to relax all of your mind, your body, and forget all of your problems and thoughts so you can be at peace with your mind and you'll feel it. Do not rush it, you've got to be relaxed, it takes time…you just have to put your faith in it…now you may begin your meditation"

Day 2, midnight

As usual Leo was seated on top of the boulder in a lotus position beneath the waterfall. It's been two days and two nights and Leo found it harder and harder to believe that anything's going to change by him meditating one more day or even one more week. If this 'training' was supposed to help him with his senses then without any doubt it has done the opposite, for starter he's lost touch to his senses as a result of having been enveloped by the falling cold water for days, he can't hear anything, he can't smell anything and it's really something considering how many bats live down here, and the never-ending strong waterfall striking his head and back didn't bother him anymore now that he's used to it or_ is it because it has finally broken the nerves in my back?_ He didn't know whether that's a good thing or not but as an exchange now he felt really peaceful…._It's like I'm in a womb or something_. The only thing that he knew he still have was his sense of sight, having been instructed by the doctor to keep looking down at the tip of his hands on his lap that were set as if he was praying and nothing else. _But what good have all this done to me? There's still no substantial change, still no 'mystical' energy that could break boulder like it was a mere twig_. The doctor's promise of invincibility is the only thing that made him still mediating here, in the depth of the cave.

"It's a dangerous path you choose here" the sound of somebody Leo knew all too well suddenly reverberated around him. His eyes widened in surprise and looked around while trying to retain his controlled breathing, he looked everywhere hoping that there's somebody out there, but there's nobody around, just shadows. _Of course. _Leo closed his eyes and he saw him, the outline of his figure barely visible lurking among the darkness of his mind. But he knew 'he' was there.

"It's you again"

"You, me, I'm telling you I can never see the difference" the guy 'spoke' with a playful tone, it had almost felt like it was his own thought and Leo knew it wasn't his, it's got to be him. It had to be.

"No, The difference is you're not real and I KNOW I AM VERY MUCH REAL!" the guy laughed very deeply which echo reverberated around the dark empty room in Leo's mind, "Do you know how ridiculous that sounds, Leo?" if it wasn't for the darkness Leo was sure he'd be able to see him still smiling that sly smile of his.

"I don't want to play games right now, just tell me what are you doing bothering me again!"

"I just want to know why can't we just be friends like we used to be, why try to lock me away with that ridiculous bracelet? You know that'll never work on me, you certainly do now"

"Friends don't try to manipulate me into going along with something against my will!"

"Against your will?" he scoffed "you are I and I am you, your will is mine, what you want is what I want, why try to defy your own feeling?"

"Enough with the mind games, it's this haki thing isn't it? You're afraid I'd discover mine…you're threatened by it! That's why you show up now" the guy just gave him a little laugh and stepped forward from the darkness to reveal that he's none other than Leo himself, his face, his hair and yet he's very different "Leo, Leo, Leo…which part of it do you not understand…look at me, I AM YOU and one day you'll learn that it's much much better to just embrace it, accept who you really are"

Leo just shook his head in denial, trying to get this deranged version of 'him' out of his head. This guy, he's been haunting Leo since he was a little kid, back then he believed him to be so real that his friends started to distance themselves away from him because 'Leo talked to himself during class' or that 'Leo have a weird imaginary friend'. But since the doctor gave him his father's bracelet in order to support his devil fruit theory, this imaginary friend of his was never to be seen again. _At least not before today.._. Yes, that man, is a part of him, locked away inside of him for years and now he's trying to come back and take him over like he once did before. The doctor believed it to be the embodiment of the devil inside a devil fruit itself. There were beliefs, old belief that the devil fruits are actually fruits possessed by the devil, so by eating one the devil will lend the eater his power but at some cost. This is why Leo's been trying to suppress his devil fruit power inside himself for so long. Now he's not sure how long he can hold 'him' off knowing that the effect of the bracelet's wearing off, either that or it's 'him' getting stronger. But that's not a reason for him to stop, if he learned anything tonight, it was that he was on the right track and after all this is over, he'll get back to his life.

It's been 3 days and 3 consecutive nights. Leo was still meditating under the waterfall and something was about to change. At first it was just a passing feeling of warmth then overtime he felt the 'breeze' all over his body. Then he remembered how completely soaked he was, at his current soaked state it's impossible for a breeze to be this warm. The feeling was getting more intense as he felt his body and the air around him getting warmer and warmer while at the same time realizing that his sense of feeling should have been numbed a long time ago, _if I can't even feel the freezing temperature of midnight water then why is a simple warm breeze could feel so real_. It started to feel more like he was sitting on top of a sunny hill during midsummer than meditating beneath a waterfall in the middle of the night, deep inside a subterranean cavern, drenched from head to toe in freezing mountain water. _There's something seriously wrong here!_

He didn't know what was happening to him until he remembered what the doctor had said to him at the day he commenced his weekly meditation. _It starts from the sense of touch then the other sense will follow_.

So he kept meditating, trying to grab hold of that feeling, now more motivated than ever and it was not until hours later could he see a difference. It's there in his peripheral vision. It's like a thin white transparent mist is surrounding his hands below him, his black fatigue pants in the background only makes it even more contrast, it's getting clearer now as he focused more. Now he could see that it's not just a mist. It's also flowing. Then he looked around his body and found the same mist enveloping his body, seemingly protecting him from the cold of the night. He looked up to see some of the mist was flying away from him and there was nothing he could to it, he can't even control the one surrounding him. The sensation was new to him and it was very vivid, it was just how the doctor had described it to him.

"…Weirdly it reminds me of the steam that usually comes from kettles…" back in the house he told his finding to the doctor and he smiled proudly patting his shoulder.

"You've finished stage one Leo! I'm really proud of you…3 months! Not bad! I think this calls for a celebration!"

"Yeah thanks but no thanks, I think I owe it to that bald guy that did this to me, I guess it motivates me to do better! Thanks dad" added Leo not really feeling that this is the time to tell the doctor the comeback of his 'imaginary' friend yet. Though deep in his mind he wondered whether his imaginary friend had something to do with this or not.

"Yeah just remember do not base your motivation on getting back on your foe, it's not good for your aura development as I said earlier, your aura or haki whatever suits you the most, is your life force, it contains all sorts of energy, if you're angry your aura will reflect that and people like that man who beat you up can use that to their advantage" Leo just nodded not really understanding how can a man fight without feeling angry or at least the urge to crush somebody "…now let me see your stomach"

It was only a month later after Leo has fully recovered that the doctor finally agreed to take his training to the next level. Now knowing that haki does indeed exist, Leo was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of curiosity. All he currently knows about haki was that it's some kind of thin mist that surrounds peoples' body and that it's affected by his thoughts and feelings, and nothing more. He needs to know more so that he can use his to reinforce his punch and read peoples' move like the doctor and the bald thug at the town showed him.

It's summer now, the weather was warm and puffs of clouds floated high in the light blue sky above their heads as they made their way to the top a grassy hill, one of their usual training spot that gives them a perfect panoramic view of the little village down below. Once they've reached their usual spot the doctor turned toward Leo and decided that the place was suitable, which means nobody's around "Now Leo release your haki, all you got, release it, let me see it"

Then as easily as turning his hand over he let more white mist out of his body, he didn't know how but the mist somehow emanates from the pores of his skin. He looked around his body with awe. This was the first time that the doctor had allowed him to let out all of his potential haki, he'd previously tried to do this but the doctor said wasting his haki would hamper his recovery, so he's really beyond fascinated now and it showed on his awestruck face. The doc just smiled as he watched his son and disciple gets familiarized with the art of inner energy. Somehow it made him reminiscence about his own experience of finding it. It also made him even more confident that Leo was ready for this by observing his ability to control the flow of his haki although for now it's limited to letting his haki go in and out of his body.

"Good, you're probably wondering why it comes out of your body, well your haki is essentially your energy, the kind where if you lose too much you'll feel tired and pass out. It's what keeps you on, just like lamp with electricity, without electricity a lamp will flicker and die. Average person as you've probably noticed, have their subconscious mind controlling the amount of energy that gets out of their bodies every day that's why you don't see as much 'mist' around themselves as you see around yourself" The doc paused to give the young teenager some time to swallow it all in, then he motioned the doc to continue.

"Now the flow that you told me about, it's the life energy that you waste every day, once it goes away it never comes back. It's what cause people to age. The older people get, the less energy they have…same with you, if you use up all of your haki aka your energy like now and you don't know how to maintain it you'll get tired fast because this is not the natural amount that a body normally produces its energy, it's like working out without lifting anything. So now it's best for you to let your haki back into your body" he did that and wished that the doctor would tell him that earlier but as he looked around him it's come to his attention that there's still some mist around him that escaped from his body while some flew away into the air, just like any other previous days but those days he didn't even think to suppress it now knowing the true nature of haki he wanted to keep it together as many as possible.

The doctor expecting his confusion continued his explanation "Now to counter that issue…we use 'Ten'…now observe" the doc took a deep breath and then suddenly the mist surrounded him. Leo was surprised at how much larger the area that's covered by the mist was, it's almost twice the diameter as his.

"No, it's not naturally this much, it's another technique called the 'Ren' but forget about it, I released all of this because it'll make you easier to see the change in flow in my haki, so observe carefully" then Leo saw the flow started to stabilize itself, now it was moving more smoothly compared to the torrent like flow that his haki has. Now he realized it was because no energy escaped the radius of the bulk of his aura, so his energy has nowhere to flow but around him. He'd somehow managed to keep all of them within his grasp, like earth with its atmosphere, he managed to do that. _Wow, this is going to take months for me to learn_…

"Where to start with this?" asked Leo, still confused

"Well if you can let out that many energy out of your body then you should be able to contain them right? Remember when I say the energy is affected by your thoughts, feelings and even commands? Why don't you start with that?"

"But how do I know it's working? My feeling changes and I see that they're still mists! Are they supposed to change colour when I'm angry…?" Leo said shrugging his head, then suddenly he felt goosebumps down his neck. It felt as if someone with great anguish was targeting him, but where? He looked around him, ready to punch whatever sob that's going to jump him but he's still shivering and nobody is insight. It all became clear to him when the doc laughed.

"Feel it? That's my anger for you, now practice! I have to go back to the house, don't be late for dinner you need as much energy as possible if you want your practice uninterrupted, the thing about haki is despite it having its own body it's still bound by your physical body so if you're sick or low on fuel i.e. you're not eating enough there'll be fewer haki, it'll also be harder for you to control it because again, the best way to control haki is if your mind and body is at peace" the doc said casually as he walked down the hill, waving his hand.

Pumped, Leo suddenly went into action. At first he was frustrated that no matter how hard he focused the energy kept floating out of the mist. _Maybe because he's not focused enough? With the chirps, the rustling, the view they're too colorful it's distracting_. Then he realized the best way to develop his haki was by meditating under his usual spot, that was after all where he got to feel and see his haki for the first time and believe it or not the solitude the cave and waterfall provided has contributed a lot to his progress. But it's not the only helping factor, as he came to realize that day, learning the art of haki can't be rushed, even if in theory it sounds simple it takes practice, patience and perseverance to see advancement.

3 Days later

"Lesson three, now that you can contain your energy…" the doctor looked over to confirm and saw Leo's haki still leaking here and there "well…most of it since it requires lots of practice, especially your breathing Leo, to completely manage the 'leak' you can start thinking about letting out as much energy as you like…this is what is called as 'Ren'…for 'Ren' to be completely effective one of course has to have considerable amount of energy to release, that is one of the reason I assigned you with those tiring cardio and other exercises, it's for you to have higher energy and most importantly stamina, as maintaining most of your haki with the Ten combined with Ren technique in a combat is very exhausting your stamina also has to be leveled with the amount of haki you produce and release…my Ren for example" again he took a deep breath then amazingly as he exhaled the energy was way way bigger than the one that he showed Leo one month ago, it reaches the ceiling and it reaches to him, he could felt the creeping sense of anguish like he felt that day only ten times more severe, so severe he couldn't move his body, he just looked frightfully at the doctor like he was a monster or something which he had no chance of winning against.

"Mastering Ren could mean a quick victory in a fight since the larger your energy is the more powerful the blow your foe's going to get from your attack, not to mention the ability of launching one single attack toward multiple foes within your radius, this is different than Ten for example since Ten is mainly used as a basic defense against haki attack, Ren is mainly used for offense… Now let me see how much energy do you have" he did as he was told and soon found himself surrounded by a much larger energy than usual, it's comparable to the doc's first demonstration of Ren a month ago. It just goes to tell how much he's still lacking in this lesson.

"Good for a beginner but it's severely lacking, you'll need practice more, more cardio, more strength training and you'll have it. But that'll be enough to land substantial blow to defenseless foes though I never do and never will support such action" the doctor said, remembering that night where he had to do a surgery on Leo because some irresponsible haki practitioner abused his power to hurt his son. Bullying the weak is never good, it's nasty.

"Good now how am I going to conjure my aura so I could reinforce my attack and defense?" asked Leo, he can't wait to break some boulders; he'd be like one of those heroes in comic books he once read during his childhood

"It's called 'Hatsu', the release of your energy to protect yourself. What's important for you to understand is that your haki is not actually the one that launches your opponent into the sky, no, your haki is just the radius, what inside it is important, it is the 'Hatsu' or 'release'. Inside, is your will and strength. Weak release of your energy will cause nothing to your opponent but a slight tickle…your will, your wants, your command is the most important. You want to intimidate your opponent, you just need to show as much killing intent as you can, you want to reinforce your punch you just focus on that and your Hatsu will do just that, but be careful sometimes there are other energies that got released along with your main Hatsu which is usually filled with great emotions such as anger that the practitioner currently experiences, you don't want to show your opponent too much of your feeling or he'll be able to read you like a book, if you think you're hopeless, it'll show in your Hatsu when you attack him and you'll absolutely lose…so again, keep your head cool"

As soon as the doc dismissed him Leo quickly ran to his training spot uphill. Now he knew all the basic and was eager to practice it as much as his body can cope. The hill was deserted as usual as he looked around for something to practice his haki on.

An hour later he'd managed to crack, not destroy, a few rocks but no boulders to his dismay. As much as he wanted to, as much as he put all of his intention of destroying that darned boulder into his Hatsu the boulder won't budge let alone a crack. He did feel the difference in his haki as he got more and more used to releasing his haki for other purpose other than for the sake of aging but it wasn't enough, he needs more energy. The idea of losing so much energy for breaking some rocks frustrated him because he's done countless of training to improve his endurance and strength since he was little, he could break stones with a chop of his palm and run a couple of kilos in the dense forest and yet all those energy…

"…is not even enough to break a rock?

Leo was back in the house, sitting on the couch relaxing, legs outstretched on the coffee table in the main room while the doctor was preparing dinner in the kitchen "I see…to release your haki to such level you need months of training Leo…it might look like it's simple but to break those rocks by pure energy you need lots of them. That's why you think punching them is easier right? But remember this, this is just a training because I did not teach you all this just for you to be able to break some rocks, in the future you fight your opponents' haki by using your own haki, you cannot punch them without any reinforcement, they'll break your fist in an instant, that's why this is important. Knowing how to protect yourself by using your haki isn't enough for there are people out there with stronger haki that can break yours easily…making sure that you're up to par with them is the best way to win a fight. Breaking rocks, like what you're doing now is a way to know your haki level, and seeing that you managed to crack some rocks on your first try I'd say it's already quite good"

"I just thought that years of endurance training would have had amounted to something you know…but months? Geez that's long" complained Leo, the doc cannot know this but since the day he found out about his haki he's been seeking to settle some scores with the bald guy from the town. He's so eager to make him sorry for beating him up but at this rate, he can forget about it.

After a long pause the doctor spoke up "Well…I suppose you could, just for a moment, take that sea-stone bracelet of yours off…and maybe…"

Leo suddenly sat upright, legs off the table "W…WHAT? What did you say again!?"


	6. It's a Logia!

"I told you never to mention or imply that darned thing again, I want none of that devil fruit power bullshit, I can manage all by myself!" he said suddenly becoming very tense

"It's been how many years? Five years? Don't you think it's time to see it as something other than some wicked curse?" he argued, true that he knew what kind of influence buried within that disciple of his but being a scientist and a doctor he was still curious about it. Not many people can produce acidic chemical as they wish and Leo can. It's just too good to be ignored, just imagine what kind of fighting style or concoctions' ingredients can be developed from it?

"If it hadn't been for this fruit, this exact power, my father would have still been alive right now" Leo retorted

"Who knows, maybe yes maybe no, the fruit would have still been on that ship and Shiki will still sink the ship and everybody dies! Knowing your father (not really) he would have sacrificed himself either way! Come on if you let me help you I think I know what you need" argued the doctor.

"What about the devil that you've been theorizing about? What about him? Did you remember the time when I went berserk 5 years ago? You want that to happen again because I don't know whether I can hold him this time or not!"

The doctor was speechless "I thought that guy's gone when I gave you the bracelet"

"Locked away not gone, he came back to me months ago when I was in the cave, telling me how I should 'let him go'" the doctor dropped whatever he was doing in the kitchen and came to the middle room

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

"I've been planning on telling you, but I thought you wouldn't be this hyped about my power so I thought…you know, it could wait"

"I didn't know, I'm sorry"

"Forget about it" Leo said as he reached forward to grab anything to distract him from this unwanted conversation but can't seem to bring himself to get it out of his mind. The doctor was still sitting beside him, looking more concerned than ever, and probably feeling a bit bad about bringing this topic up.

This is why he didn't tell him earlier, he'd just overreact and felt like it was his responsibility to cure whatever sickness or oddities Leo has "But you know…I didn't think he show himself up to me that night without a reason"

"What do you mean?"

"It was the day before I discovered my haki, he seemed to know that sooner or later I was going to discover it, I don't know but I've been thinking…what if he's afraid of haki? But that doesn't make sense does it? How can I hurt something so deeply rooted in my mind?" the doctor seemed to be fascinated by this, _yes, I think I could see the connection here._

"Leo, I haven't told you this but haki like sea-stone can cancel abilities" Leo's eyes lighted up at that,_ no wonder! He was afraid that I'd lock him up there forever with my haki_

"How does that work?"

"Hatsu? I don't know how that works but in fights against DF users I always have that on my mind 'cancel their abilities' and it did"

"Can you use Hatsu on yourself?"

"Honestly, I don't know"

"Well then there's only one way of finding it out" Leo suddenly got up from the couch and walked outside, the doctor knowing what his son's intention was followed closely behind.

"I know you want to lock this guy away as long as you can but I can't guarantee it'll work Leo, haki is a complicated art, one guy could master one technique in a minute while it could take another guy one month, you're gambling here" but Leo has already taken off the bracelet by the moment the doctor finished voicing his concern, he just grinned "Remember what you said to me when I was a kid and I couldn't sleep because I was afraid of darkness? You sat down and said to me, 'well boy you can't live the rest of your life fearing the darkness can you?' Well I feel like this is the time to confront it and if I lose, then that means I don't deserve this power, it's that simple" the doctor just stood there, acknowledging the choice that his son has made, for a moment there the doctor thought he saw his father Len, his haki, it'd felt like his.

When he said that to the doctor it had sounded like he was a brave guy or something but deep down he still have his doubts. All he could do now is to wait and when the time comes he's going to be ready with his haki.

"Well?"

"No, not yet" but then as soon as he said that he felt a sudden surge of power inside him, it felt like he's just been struck by a lightning that energized him and made him invincible. But it wasn't his haki, no he would have felt it, it was something else. "No, it's too much!" Leo groaned as he felt the new power that he was holding overwhelming his ability to control it. The power kept coming in while Leo's own haki was already stretched to its limit.

"Leo! What's wrong?"

"It's the devil, he's trying to replace my power with his!"

"Leo remember, your haki! Use it!"

"It's not enough, I'm losing!" Leo said as he felt something changing, changing him from inside, something foreign.

"W….WHAT the..." the doctor could only say that as he watched his son turned into somewhat a gooey New World-ian abomination, his skin turning liquid green. His face melting, his eyes were gone, what was left were the two sockets that used to house his eyes, the same happened to his nose while his mouth has completely gone, there weren't even a line. Leo's face looked more like a mouth-less skull now than a normal face of a human being. He didn't know what else has changed since his clothes were still there albeit a viscous acidic one. Yes, acidic, as he saw the drips from Leo's white tank-top dissolving the grass below him.

"Alright enough! Wear your bracelet now Leo! LEO!" the doctor ordered him, a note of urgency in his voice.

"This is GREAT!" the manifestation of Leo's power exclaimed_, so he did have mouth_, but it was more like a hole now, with acid dripping from it. There seemed to be no teeth or tongue inside, just a hole.

"Leo, we'll be found!"

"No you don't understand father, this is so GREAT! The power is nothing else that I've ever felt! See this!" Leo swished his hand and spattered the green liquid on a tree trunk "Wait for it, it's getting to the best part" the doctor's eyes widened as he watched the little green splatter pattern on the trunk of the tree began to expand to other parts of the tree and the tree began to crack and changed colour. Minutes later there was no longer a tree or anything else for that matter, the thing has dissolved the thing effectively from the tip of the highest branch down to its deepest roots leaving a gaping hole on the ground. The doctor could only watch in awe, this power was of different level than what Leo had exhibited 5 years ago. Back then his acid was nothing more than a ticklish substance, the worse you could get from its contact was a minor rash.

"Leo stop it now or you'll destroy the entire forest!" the doctor began to think that Leo has lost it

"Why would I stop!? This is great, this power I feel like I can conquer the world!" the doctor just stood there dumbfounded, Leo would never say those things.

"Remember what they do to ability user here? You don't want to create a problem for yourself here Leo, think about it" the doctor tried to remind Leo, hoping that he'd just calm down and talk sense again, but now Leo looked at him with a pair of hateful eyes instead, the expression it was like he was standing face to face with his nemesis "IT'S YOU AND THIS STUPID COUNTRY THAT ARE THE PROBLEM! YOU'RE JUST A HINDRANCE!" Leo yelled while pointing his finger at him as he got nearer to him, the doctor could only take a step back "I was doing what's best for you!" "WRONG! YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO SEE ME STONGER THAN YOU! YOU'RE AFRAID I'D SURPASS YOU! YOU'VE BEEN TRYING TO CONTAIN ME FOR SO LONG BUT I NEVER FORGET WHO MY REAL DAD IS! I'D NEVER BECOME A MARINE LIKE WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED ME TO BE! I CAN FEEL IT NOW, THE RAGING PIRATE BLOOD IN ME! WITH THIS POWER I'M INVINCIBLE!" Leo swung his leg and kicked the doctor, the surprised man barely had enough time to harden himself with his haki. However, the kick was strong enough it threw the doctor several meters onto the ground. The doctor looked around quickly and found a wooden stick before he did a kip up and swung it at his delusional son. But nothing happened. The stick, it went through Leo, making an open diagonal wide gap between Leo's chest and stomach. The doctor threw the stick away to the ground as Leo's acid started to make its way toward the startled doctor's hand, dissolving the rest of the wooden stick in its wake. Leo just laughed "TRY AGAIN OLD MAN!" Leo thrust his leg straight forward as he did a snap kick aimed at the doctor's chest. The doctor had to admit he trained his son good as it was enough to break his haki, but not enough to make him tumbling into the ground.

"Satisfied?" the doctor taunted the disgruntled Leo "I HATE HAKI" knowing that he could never use his haki whenever he's in this form. "Now's a great chance to prove which one's stronger, haki or a logia?" the doctor continued to taunt Leo.

Leo continued to kick and punch the doctor to no avail, the doctor's haki were too strong to penetrate. But that didn't mean Leo was no match to the doctor as he set up great defense that even the doctor found it difficult to find an opening. It didn't last long though as the doctor started his attack with a powerful spinning heel kick to the head, imbued with haki of course. The kick managed to throw Leo a few meters into the wood. _Good, less people will see this. _Thought the doctor.

Leo, on the ground opened his eyes and groaned as he felt his head spinning from the last kick. He quickly got up and looked around not seeing his foe anywhere among the vast expanse of wood before him "told you, haki is superior than mere devil fruit ability" Leo turned to see where that voice was coming from but by the time he did so his face was already met with another kick. His flying body destroyed a few trees as he went.

"WHERE ARE YOU!" Leo was getting frustrated, what seemed like a great power minutes ago now seemed worthless when faced with the doctor's haki in this wood. _This is what he wants me to do, to fight him in the woods! That bastard._ Leo ran toward a nearby clearing to at least lessen his foe's advantage. The doctor knowing his foe's intention moved in for the kill, knowing fully well that by doing so he was exposing himself. But he took his chances anyway.

At last Leo saw something moving in the corner of his eyes thanks to the moonlight escaping from the nearby clearing ahead of him. "YOU SLIPPED!" Leo threw a punch toward the figure but the doctor intercepted it just in time, he pulled Leo's right hand and hit him on the gut with another one of his heel kick. It hit the spot where the bald guy months ago had previously hit him. Leo groaned as he fell to his knees, not wanting to give his foe time to recover the doctor hit him again with one last powerful snap kick, now to his chin to ensure a knockout. Leo dropped to the ground, arms splayed wide and the fight was over.

As the doctor walked around him to put on Leo's sea-stone bracelet again, Leo turned back to his 'human form'. The doctor just shrugged his head, he didn't know what the hell happened just now. He's never fought like that since he left Grand Line. He certainly missed those times where he'd beat down over-confident devil fruit users who thought he was just another 'scientist', _boy were they wrong!_ And somehow looking at Leo here, reminded him of those people. It's his worst dream, truly to see Leo turned out to become like one of those Pirates. This is why he brought him up in this quaint little town, where his father grew up but he was a 'special case' as the elders of the village told him. Looking around at the destruction that their little fight had caused the doctor sighed, he didn't know if he was serious or not about 'conquering the world' but he was sure if he hadn't been able to stop him earlier without a doubt he'd cause quite a destruction to the world. This he can't let that happen, not now, not ever, now he knew Leo still need more time to be trusted with his acid power yet.

It was raining outside as Leo regained his consciousness. He looked around and find that he was tucked comfortably inside his bed. "Ouch" Leo felt a sting in the side of his head and realized that his bodies were wrapped with bandages here and there. "What the heck happened?" as he raised his hand to soothe his aching head he caught sight of his sea-stone bracelet on his wrist and it all came back to him, the event of the other night, him taking off the bracelet and fighting the doctor…and lost "Uh oh"

"Ah Leo, how are you feeling?" Leo turned his head to see the doctor standing in the doorway with a fresh bowl of soup, despite last night's fight the doctor seemed to be as healthy as ever, there were no bruises or even scratches on him. Leo sat up on his bed and took the bowl of soup "I…I'm sorry" the doctor just smiled and sat beside him on the bed "Let's save that for later, now it's better for you to rest" the doctor stroked his son's hair "I'm just glad that you're alright" the doctor stood up and left, closing the door behind him. Leo could only curse at himself for letting the devil overwhelmed him like that, _why do I have to be so weak…_

Night

"Well I do believe that the greater the power is, the harder it is for the user to control" the doctor at last shared his comment during dinner after many attempts made by Leo to make him talk about what he knew and learned from last night's incident. He needs to know every single detail, what caused it to happen, how to stop it, he can't let his life be haunted by a ghost he know could control him at any second.

"And being a logia is greater than other type of devil fruits?"

"It depends, but I do believe that it gives you greater power from the get go while in the case of paramecia you need a lot of creativity to make it effective, some zoans too as they can shape-shift into different types of the same animal, I've seen these kinds of zoan-users before and most of them were efficient fighters who've perfectly adapted to their own forms, but then again they're rare…most were confident with their extra-strength they didn't bother to expand it"

"How did you know that I wasn't just a paramecia who happen to be capable of producing acid?"

"At first I thought you were a paramecia too because honestly there aren't many logias out there but last night you've proven to me your fruit is of different class than paramecia" Leo looked confused, well it couldn't be helped since this was the first time the doctor explained the world's general knowledge of the devil fruit to him "Your body Leo, it was completely liquid, you know what that means right? Yeah you're invincible except…" "Haki" the doctor just nodded passively, he was still sorry that his son had to learn it the hard way about haki's effect on devil fruit users. "Paramecia, no matter how much acid one can produce will never be able to turn himself into acid, but you could…Leo, you're without a doubt a logia"

"Being a logia, that sounds great, really father but it wouldn't be of use if using it means hurting you…or anybody else for that matter"

"That's why it's important to tell me what happened last night, from your point of view, what made you…gone berserk like that"

Leo paused for a second to think about it all, to recall what had happened that night.

Leo placed his mug in the table and started to talk "It was him…" Leo looked at the doctor to see if he understand what he meant "the power were too much for me to handle, it had felt like haki, I could feel it around my body but it was…more powerful, so powerful I couldn't do anything to stop it even with my haki, it kept surging into my body and I saw him approaching, forcing his way through my face and the next thing I knew I had these ideas and images in my mind, about how you've been isolating 'me' for these years, preventing me from developing my full power, stopping me from becoming what I really am? Then there were chaotic pictures about wars, a desert, the Marines, I saw a Pirate's Jolly Roger and a water…no…it was the sea, it felt like I was being dropped into the sea then there were random pictures…horrible flashes about me doing something that I'd never even think about of doing, there were strange creatures and prison bars…I don't know it was all jumbled up! Then before I realized it I was already attacking you, I was conscious, but I couldn't think straight, it…it felt like it was the right thing to do, attacking the man and the system who've been keeping me from becoming what I truly am…you must know father that I'd never think of you that way, you've done so much to me…you are and will always be my father…" Leo felt the doctor's hands in his balled hands "I know Leo, I know you'd never do something like that and listen…it should be me who's sorry because I was the one who forced you to do it…"

Leo shook his head "If I wasn't so damn weak…" the doctor squeezed his hands "Listen Leo, I've known you since you were 2 and I've been taking care of you, training you ever since and you know what? I know you're everything but weak isn't one of them Leo, you have to understand that. It's not you, it's just that there are some things that take time to get used to…what I can advise you to do about this is for you to train your haki to balance your fruit power…" Leo opened his mouth to protest but the doctor stopped him "…of course with the bracelet still on, the first thing you can do is try to get a feel of your haki body, the organs and vessels that produce and circulate the haki, you must have felt it inside of you when you released your haki, once you gain control of it release it slowly…because Leo the thing about haki is, you can get as much haki as you want, it's easy but the question is how much can you hold? See, you'd be feeling more than tired if you lost too much of your life force, believe me you don't want to feel it, so do it slowly" Leo's head raised, there were words that caught Leo's intention "What do you mean I can get as much haki as I want?" the doctor sipped his coffee "All this…is energy Leo! the earth, the nature, the air, do you know that energy is infinite, they can be neither created nor destroyed, do you know what that means? that means our world is teeming with energy and it's free for us to take!" Leo always knew the doctor was always a bit weird_, how can energy be infinite?_ "Energy have many forms, they can change into a different kind of energy if put in certain circumstances, you don't feel haki in the air simply because there's no haki in the air, it'll be if you breathe it which your body will convert it into energy aka haki, same with eating and sleeping, that's why I said your health, your diet matter"

"Then if it's only a matter of what you breathe and what you eat then how come your haki is way bigger than mine? What did you eat to get that much?"

"As I said, you have to be able to hold that much haki to be able to control it, most people waste their haki to do their daily lives, some barely have enough haki because they don't have control over theirs, like I said months ago haki is affected by your feeling and what you think, while in order to maintain your haki you have to be as calm as possible and you can't let your emotions take you over. These emotions affect haki in many ways than you can imagine Leo, but I'm afraid if I explain about how this works it'll only bore you more…what I can say is practice, keep practicing the focused breathing techniques that I've taught you, apply that in your meditations and other forms as it helps your haki to circulate around your body and you'll find yourself with considerably improved haki"

"But how! How does it work? I don't think I can get it right if I don't know what I'm doing"

The doctor sighed, he didn't know how to describe it as he was only a medical doctor and all these words he said about haki was a direct explanation his trainer gave him when he was still in the Marine and he didn't give him a hell lot of theoretical information for him to rely on, he had to discover this by himself, _you should be grateful that I teach you this at all Leo! _But the doctor kept his cool and at last found a 'simple' explanation that his son would hopefully understand "Think of these forms as exercise, think of it as your strength training where you keep adding weights to build your muscle, you know to build muscle you have to break that resistance barrier right, same with haki training you have to set the bar higher than any other normal people by doing the right breathing techniques, and trying to keep your haki accumulated within your body by making sure that every part of your body is getting the same ration of haki by doing the right forms of mediation, over time the natural amount that your body can store will increase because it knows you can hold more this time and then you circulate the haki evenly around your body again, you then get more and more haki for you to practice and improve your Ten…keeping your mind calm is important here as it'll be difficult for you to feel the flow of your haki when you're distracted by something else" Leo was still a bit confused by the explanation but I think he got the gist of it._ So it's some kind of resistance training…_concluded Leo

"Alright dad, but can't say I got it all though…" Leo said as he stood up and took the plates to the sink

"Don't worry, you'll understand it when you practice, I know I did"

"Oh I can't wait to try this logia power of mine without the hang ups" said Leo clearly motivated, it might take him a long time to be worthy of his devil fruit ability but he could say it'd be worth the wait.

The doctor's eyes sparked seeing such young energy before him…the kid didn't know that with great power like that comes with it greater responsibility and also threat…from his experience devil fruit users will almost always end up as either a vigilante or criminal, thinking that they're special. That's one of the reasons why he must prepare him for the future, for the so called Great Pirate Age has no place for the weak. Everyone were so blinded by the opportunity of finding the late 'Pirate King's treasure they didn't realize they'd sunk lower than the Pirates before them, they at least still have some codes of honor binding them with Whitebeard being one of the last of those Pirates. Now it's not about adventure anymore, it's about who's going to be the next Pirate King, who's going to dominate who, the highest bounties and all that…"Just keep it in your mind Leo that whatever the reason is you can never show your power to anyone, you know this sea doesn't take ability users too kindly…"

"I know I know, you've been telling me that for like a billion times already! North Blue sure is a tough place for devil fruit users to live in and the irony is i can see why"

"When you become a Marine you can do whatever you like with that ability of yours" he said as a matter of factly. The least he could wish for his son was for him to not become some degenerate Pirate who's too confident about his ability, what good did being a Pirate do to Len? Well Marine or Pirate or anything else he knew Leo would become a powerful man. He'd make sure of that.

"Let's say I did overcome the curse thing, what good would that do if I can't even use it? You know that I'm not the adventuring kind of guy, I like this place, home sweet home"

The doctor just smiled "I'm not saying you cannot use it, just don't show them your ability" the words earned the doctor a confused look from his son.

"Wait…How am I going to use it without showing it to everybody?"

"Leo Leo Leo…my simple Leo" the doctor murmured with that smug smirk of his, obviously he knew something that Leo did not know about…he sighed, preparing himself for another lecture. "Do you know why people eat Leo?" Said the doc as he opened the refrigerator and grabbed two oranges "we eat so we'll not starve, so we'll not run out of energy right…?" The doc tossed the other orange to Leo who was still cleaning the dishes. "What people like you don't know is that our body doesn't need sandwich, it doesn't need cereal or vegetables, it needs the substance within, something that our body cannot synthetize or produce on its own" the doc said between his peeling and swallowing of the piece of orange. "Now these substances are acid…acid is not merely a liquid that dissolve objects, acid is actually a condition…so if you're really an acid man, then you should not only be able to create an acid that destroys but also to construct…the ones that are responsible for growth, recovery, metabolism and more importantly producing enough energy for your everyday lives…if you could produce them in an infinite amount within your own body you'd get an infinite amount of energy! This way you can use your ability without anybody noticing, this is what pushed me into suggesting you to take the bracelet off in the first place..ah…sorry to brought that up again, but of course it's just my take on your ability" said the doctor as he swallowed another orange.

"How do you know all this?" the doctor never seemed to stop impressing him with his wide range of knowledge, that he never even knew existed. He was sure that if the doctor was to teach him about everything he knows about these stuffs since he was little, he'd still be lecturing him right now.

"Let's just say I've done quite a lot of researches compared to other scientists my age"

"I thought all you do all day was listening peoples' heartbeat with that stethoscope of yours, and how old are you anyway? 80?"

"Don't be rude boy! I'm only a little over 60 so that means I can still beat you up pretty good if you mention my age again! And yeah I _help_ people with their problem and I did some researches too, you'd know it if you haven't been so busy going to town stalking that beekeeper girl that your friends told me you liked!"

"Damn them!" Leo cursed at his friends, now that he thought about them, he kind of missed them all, this summer, they all went to some resort towns down south where it's warmer with their parents while Leo was stuck here being the doctor's errand boy as usual. The doctor said that he was not a 'summer guy'. Leo just sighed at his predicament.

But the doctor's explanation has made Leo realize something, his ability is a very versatile one but he felt that he was going to need lots of time to perfect it. Identifying and producing these 'good acids' he felt like trying to find his haki all over again. "With those matters aside I think it's indeed a very exciting theory doctor! One problem though…I don't know how to produce them, It seems like all I've been producing are the destructive ones…" "Well that's natural since you've only taken off your bracelet for once, and look how that turned out" Leo just shook his head as the doctor implied that incident again, he didn't know whether the doctor do that on purpose or not.

"It takes time Leo…you have to have a strong will to master a devil fruit, from what I see I think it's going to be a greater challenge for you than finding your haki…there are countless of devil fruit users who lost their lives foolishly because they don't fully understand their ability out there…this time you'll have to do it alone...while exploring your potential fruit abilities is good I personally think it's best for you to keep training your haki first, I'm thinking about setting you up with a different set of exercises this time"

Leo finished with the dishes turned around to face the doctor while drying his hands with a napkin "Yeah, this summer I don't think I have anything else to do anyway, you said something about your friend needing some help with something? Is the money good?"

**So that's a preview of Leo's Acid ability, i have to admit by this point i still haven't decided what his fighting style will be, haki or devil fruit, if it was going to be devil fruit maybe you readers have any suggestions of what might his variations of 'acidic' power be as there are many kind of acids out there and i don't even think i know half of them. So if you have an idea i'd really appreciate it if you tell me alright?**

**Hope you enjoyed the story**


	7. Daniel d'Olonnais

Morning, Wolves Peak entrance

"Hey, you're Leo right? James told me about you" a man with green lumberjack jacket greeted Leo. As Leo approached the guy he could make out the figure obscured behind the early morning mist, the man was tall and muscular, almost burly, he left his chin unshaven and he was carrying an axe on his shoulder. He looks nice enough although from the tan skin, ragged look and the square chin he could look intimidating easily.

He extended his hand from his leaning position against the Wolves Peak entrance sign "Yeah, I'm Leo, how are you doing" Leo said shaking his hand with the man's rough jagged hands. "Good, good, I see you brought your own axe, that's good…my name's Danny by the way" The guy said while squeezing Leo's hand hard, Leo didn't know if it was intentional or it was simply because the man was strong. "Nice to meet ya…uhm… are we the only ones?" Leo asked trying hard not to cringe as he felt his hand getting crushed. Leo was afraid that if he was the only one, he'd have to have the trees chopped down by himself, which would be quite an achievement.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so…not many people in this village know haki and it's better to let them stay that way" said the lumberjack while lighting his cigarette, offering Leo some which he refused. Then Danny looked around before motioning Leo to follow him into the misty back wood.

"What does chopping down trees have anything to do with haki?" Leo asked as the two made their way down a trail to the forest with Danny leading the way. As they got deeper into the woods Leo couldn't help but reminisce about the time he spent with his friends here. Usually they just camp out and explore the woods as it seems to have a mystical quality about them. But most of all they spar here, as you see, his friends are just as much as a martial art maniac as him and Leo couldn't wait until he practice his haki on them. And if they did decide to explore the woods they'd always get lost and stumble into weird things, on the last 'exploration the group encountered a walking bear picking some mushrooms. Until now Leo could not decide whether it was real or a result of eating some kind of shrooms his friends had assured him to be safe. No matter how long he's been exploring the woods he never think he's ever for even once see the other edge of it.

"It means everything! You can't touch one without haki" Danny said without moving his eyes from the trail in front of him not realizing that he's interrupted Leo's daydream. "What?" That was the only thing Leo's mouth could blurt out at the supposed answer to his previous question. "James hasn't told you about that?" Danny asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "About what?" asked Leo. "The trees, they're protected by haki, strong ones, I guess you already know the Blackwood trees are known for its solid but flexible material. It's said to be one of the best materials for ships, be it Pirate galleons or Marine battleships. People from around the world wanted the woods for their ships. Because of that, years ago the trees faced extinction but before that happens the Royal Guards located a colony of the last remaining Blackwood trees on this mountain, then to protect the trees they placed their haki on the trees which last no more than a year, that's why every year the guards come here and renew the haki" Danny explained "and the haki's going to wear out soon, so it's the best time of the year to sell us some Blackwood woods"

"So what we're about to do…it is not legal?" Leo was growing worried, he doesn't want to ruin his future by getting caught tearing down one of the rarest trees on earth. He can't believe the doctor let him work with this guy! Did the doctor lose a bet to this guy?

"Kind of…that's why we're going to do it discretely and anyway the place where we're going to do it is secluded enough nobody's going to catch us" Danny said with an incredible laid-back tone as if nothing could go wrong with this.

"I'm only doing this because the doctor told me to, alright, if I got caught I'd put all the blame on you!" Leo said, Danny looked back at the tense Leo and he smoked his cigarette while smirking "good enough for me" replied the laidback guy. _He looks like he's getting a thrill out of this!_

"Wait…how do you put your own haki in other objects? The person doing it has got to be really strong to make it last every year" Leo finally said after some minutes of walking, searching for something he knew he'd missed, now he's found the question he'd meant to ask him. Yes, they've got to be strong as Leo even at this stage still finds it difficult to maintain his Ten and these guys upped the ante by placing and maintaining their haki in objects for a year, it made Leo wonder whether there was 'mastering the haki' for him or anybody else.

"Not now, but you're going to learn it soon" Danny said, while rubbing his palm in the curious Leo's dirty blond hair.

An hour later

The two men have finally arrived at Danny's previously mentioned place. It was faster than what Leo had expected from something 'secluded enough'. Soon he found himself standing in front of what he thought at first was a black wall. "Holy Gylfen! Look at this tree, this has got to be 10 feet in diameter!" Leo's eyes caught a white 'X' mark on its bark. "Tell me we're not going to chop this thing"

"Sorry kid" Leo just stared at Danny disbelievingly. How could the doctor entrust him with something like this? Chopping down a Blackwood tree? The kind of tree that's reputed to be the sturdiest, hardest, strongest tree to be harvested around here. He's never even chopped a single tree before and now here he was standing in front of what seemed to be one of the biggest Blackwood tree he's ever seen in his life and this unbelievable guy told him he'd be chopping this tree down.

Leo was walking around to catch some breath and get it all in when he found five Blackwood trees' stumps around the area where the sunshine reached the canopy of the dense forest.

"I suppose this is your doing?"

"Yep, did them last year and the year before" Danny said while swinging his axe, practicing, making sure that he still knew how to do it right. Leo just nodded, _this guy's a monster!_

Danny clapped his hands as he finished warming up "Alright let's do this thing!"

"Let's see what you got here" Danny took Leo's axe and he measured it and tested its sharpness.

"It's good enough, now I'm going to teach you how to get us some woods alright?"

"First of all you're going to have to decide where you want the tree to be felled, you don't want it to drop right on top of your head, that's why you must do two cuts when you want to fell a tree" Danny moved, facing the tree now, hands firmly on the axe.

"See, here's the right position, you don't want the axe to hit you if it somehow 'bounced' back or didn't hit its target. Position yourself as far away from the axe head, it'll generate more power to your swing but don't overdo it or you'll tire your forearm quickly"

"The direction that I'm facing right now will be the direction where this thing will fall, no matter where you decide to do the face cut if you do it right the direction you're facing will always be the place where it'll fall, this doesn't mean you can fell a tree anywhere you want, no, you must fell it in a clear ground, no twigs, no rocks, no trees, no nothing" then Danny moved around the tree to face the opposite direction of his 'face cut'.

"This is the back cut, when you do the face cut earlier just make sure that you only chop halfway across the stump so there'll be room for the back cut and also always make sure you cut it higher than the face cut, the back cut is the last cut you do and you chop it until the tree starts to lose its balance, when that happens watch it closely and quickly get the hell out of there, and make sure the wind's not blowing your way too"

"So…any questions?" after several seconds Leo shook his head as it seemed fairly basic to him, there seemed to be no special technique or something. Just the usual tree chops that he often sees his neighbors do. Only this tree is 10 times bigger than the 'ordinary' trees he saw his neighbor chopping.

"You'll be cutting down this tree and that one over there and I'll be cutting other trees somewhere else…don't overdo it alright" Danny said as he began to walk away from the dumbstruck Leo. _Wa…wait a sec, what did he just say?_

"Wait! We're not going to do it together?" shouted Leo

"It ain't gonna be a training if I help you sonny! I'll be back to bring you your lunch don't you worry" he shouted back.

"Crap! How do I know he's not just slacking off or setting me up?" Leo thought for a second "Well…if the doc trusts me with him then he must not be that bad…better get started" Leo murmured as he gripped the axe and proceeded to swing it.

On the first try Leo amassed his pure strength without haki and swung at the tree in front of him and with his power he managed to make a slight cut on the bark of the tree, the same could not be said for his forearms however as they received the force of the hit, the rumor was true, he felt like he was thumping on a metal, the wood's really solid and he knew if he keeps doing it he'll run out of energy before he could make it half way to the center.

Then on his second attempt he used his full strength plus his haki, when he sensed his haki at its maximum capacity (Ren) has accumulated around him he swung the axe. It was better than the first try but still he was disappointed because despite of doing his best it still didn't cut as deep as he'd expected. "This won't cut it" he doubted that it even reached past the bark. It was as if there's another layer of wood protecting it, making it even sturdier…more solid. But Leo remembered what the doctor said last night. Think of this as a training. _Well Danny will probably tolerate it since this is my first time, I'll surely improve_ thought Leo.

Hours later the sun was right above Leo's head, in the midst of the unusually summer heat Leo couldn't help but sweat profusely. He was still chopping at the same tree, at the same spot and he almost made it halfway but his breathing has become erratic. "This is tiring…3 hours and I only made it half way…and my haki is exhausting fast…I don't even have the energy to keep it from flowing out of me…" he murmured to himself as he looked at his blistered palms, _these blisters are the worst_. He might be tired but he's still aware of his surrounding, that's why he immediately jerked his head to whatever it was that made a cracking noise from the opposite side of the forest.

"Hey…I came to bring you your lunch" Leo relaxed, it was Danny with a big box wrapped in a plastic bag in his hand. How he came up with that Leo didn't know, he was sure Danny didn't go all the way back to Wolves Peak just to grab him his lunch.

Danny approached the tree Leo has been working on and walked around it "3 hours and halfway huh? That's quite slow, even for a beginner…" Danny said straight to the point as he sat on one of the stumps nearby.

"I don't know how you or other people do it but this is the best my haki can do…I think I'm done for the day Danny" He said while opening the white box, filled with a couple of bread, with slices of smoked beef and mustard. It's one of his favorites menu, the doctor must have told him that.

"No, Leo, I've seen your haki and I know you can do more than this, problem is you're not focusing all your energy in the part where it should be" said Danny, Leo motioned him to go on between his munching of his lunch.

"When you swing your axe, which part of your body do you think will contribute the most to the power of your swing? Your legs? Your eyes? Your arms?" Danny gave the boy a side glance as he picked up Danny's axe and positioned himself in the opposite of the direction, from which Leo's been trying to chop down the tree since forever. Danny smiled when he saw Leo's bright green eyes light up.

"Yes, you should focus all your haki on your arm, this is a technique called as 'Gyo', it might sound simple but to maintain all of your haki together in just one part of your body requires a high level of Ten, otherwise it'd not be effective, you follow me Leo? The art of haki is expandable, you can use your haki for everything that's why creativity is a great asset for haki practitioners" to which Leo just nodded, Danny walked to the other side of the tree and swung his axe at it. The axe hit it spot on with a loud crack sound and he could see the huge force being absorbed by Danny's strong forearms, and the next thing Leo knew there was already a hug gaping hole making up the 'back cut'. Leo almost choked on the food he forgot was still in his mouth caused by the graphic display of the sheer impact of Danny's swing. The flutter of birds escaping the impact could be heard around the forest and he could have sworn he felt the wave of the swing just now. "You see it Leo?" asked Danny, after resting the head of the axe firmly on a nearby stump. Leo just nodded in awe, mouth still full of food. It's got to take some serious skill to make a major cut like that and not bring the tree down with the force.

After a quick trip to the nearby stream to rest and refill their water bottles the pair decided that it'd be best for Leo to take some rest, so they called it a day. Leo was surprised when he found out that in the 3 hours that it took him to finish the face cut Danny was already chopping his part of the tree into several circular logs. Seeing how tall the tree was (150 ft or so) he was surprised when the 10.1' feet tall Danny carried two of the logs on his shoulder all by himself, he never thought the man was that strong. Sure the man is quite burly and is slightly above North Blue men's average height which is 9.4' feet high but even a strong North Blue man would have had a hard time carrying the wood let alone chopping it down. Take Leo for example, he was only able to drag one of the logs, thanks to his already tired arms.

After accompanying Danny placing all the wood near his isolated cabin located deeper within the forest, both men proceeded back to Wolves Peak. Danny said he was going to meet his 'client' who ordered 3 of the woods in the town, a woman from Water Seven, a faraway island in the Grand Line. He admitted that his illegal logging activity was just a 'seasonal' job he said the demand for materials for ships was higher than ever these days and he also told Leo it's partly because it's been a long time since the last time he came back to his hometown. He unsurprisingly also told Leo that he was his father's crew back in the days and told him a few stories about the adventures he's had with his dad. A little bit inspired by it Leo expressed his interest about becoming an adventurer aka a pirate himself but Danny scolded him, saying that his father did not sacrifice his life for Leo to ends up like him and that Leo should be grateful that he's what he is right now, an educated boy in North Blue.

Now back in the Wolves Peak entrance, both men bid their goodbyes. But minutes later Leo had to turn back to the town after remembering that this morning the doctor had requested him to shop for some ingredients. It seems like exhaustion and Danny's exciting adventure stories made him forget about his errand. Now that he was alone and no adventure story to distract him he felt his exhaustion growing even worse with his shoulders, hands and forearms sore. He'd never felt like this since years.

Several minutes later after Leo had finished buying the ingredients the doc needed in Wolves Peak Leo went to the Upper Market Street famous for its hangout café. To his dismay he realized he only had a little pocket money left so he could only order some cokes. As he sat there in the bar he got a few weird looks from the patrons. Then he realized all the distinct looking Blackwood saw dust around his unbuttoned shirts and black fatigue so he grabbed his coke and the doctor's ingredients, and left immediately afraid of somebody getting wise and reports him to the authority. Let that one experience of beating up a guard in a bar brawl be the first and last experience of him fighting the authority because it was messy, thousands of beli of fine just to get him away from jail.

As he quickened his pace he saw Danny with a mid-aged woman coming from a fancy bar down the street. The pair had a little chat before they parted. The blonde woman walked in his direction, as she got nearer he could make out her pointy nose and smiley mouth, the woman looks weird enough and not someone he'd have guessed involved in black market stuff.

"I'd say those folks are quite a crazy bunch" Danny said shrugging the back of his head "she needs strong sleepers for building tracks!" explained Danny. "Can't they make it out of other woods?" Leo asked, feeling a bit upset because all his hard work and effort, and him risking going to jail were done just so somebody could build a railway. "It's the crazy thing about them, they're building railways across the sea from island to island over there, can you believe it? Even for Grand Line standard this is crazy". Leo sighed "I don't know… I'm going home now, see you tomorrow" Leo said, feeling really tired now he just wanted to crash in his comfy bed and sleep all night long.


	8. Meeting the Royal

The next day

Yesterday's chore really brought the haki training into a whole new level, when Leo got back home he was so tired he couldn't even practice his haki and with the doctor out of town he didn't know how best to recover. So he slept all night long not bothering with the house chores the doctor has assigned him while he was away. Now on his way to the forest Leo has managed to somehow bring all his haki to his arm for a few seconds. Danny was right. It needs a whole new level of focusing to keep it all in his arm because in normal circumstances he only need to focus on Ten, heck in a normal circumstances he wouldn't need to use his haki at all. But that was in the past, to think that he'd be able to do all these things a year ago was really unimaginable for Leo. He thought he'd mastered it all, but as it turns out the doctor was only preparing him for this.

As he walked he realized why Danny said Gyo was the advanced form of Ten it was because in Gyo not only does he have to keep his haki from vaporizing away he also needs to keep it from spreading back to other parts of his body. Leo still noticed his haki flowing escaping here and there due to him keeping all of his haki trapped in one body part. The flow isn't that smooth yet. _It needs a while to get used to_...he figured.

When he arrived at the tree he was supposed to fell yesterday he didn't see Danny around and decided that he'd start anyway. After less than an hour he at last managed to fell one tree with his own effort…and a bit of Danny's even though still he hasn't managed to do the Gyo effectively, just one or two times until he realized that it only helped in wasting his haki. _It's still far away from Danny's but it's a good start_…he figured. As he was looking proudly at the first Blackwood tree he'd ever cut he heard rustles of leaves from up a hill several meters behind him. As he looked up, his fear had come true, there was somebody there, a boy to be exact. _Shit…!_

"Hey!" Leo shouted as he rushed toward the hill and the boy just stood there looking down at him silently. He was a bit relieved when he realized that the boy could not be more than 10 years old so he probably doesn't understand what illegal logging is but then it made him think, what kind of boy walked all alone in this part of the forest? _Could he be lost?_ After several seconds considering whether to risk it or not, he decided to help the boy anyway, so he went around the steep slope facing the place where he cut down the tree earlier but by the time he got there the boy was nowhere to be seen. He walked around, looking around the shrubs and thick woods and trying to hear the sound of steps but it was quiet save for some random chirping of the inhabitants of the forest. He noticed an easel with a painting on it near the edge of the slope leading to his logging site. As he looked at the painting he realized the boy must have been painting the Mount 'Or, located across the Wolves Mountain. W_ait, painting this good it can't be his, must be his parents', which means I'm screwed_. Leo rushed toward the edge of the hill wondering whether he could see the kid and his parents anywhere from up there, whether they've managed to notice the authority or not but as he neared to the edge of the hill he realized how amazing the view from up there was, the spot offered a rare and brilliant sight of the rolling and snowy bluish 'Or Mountain far ahead, it's a great contrast between the tree covered ground, bluish snow covered mountain on the horizon and the cloudless light blue summer sky, all thanks to the fact that the nearby trees that should have obstructed the view has been cut down by both Danny and Leo. Taking in the view he couldn't really blame the boy, with a view like this it must be really difficult to be bothered with anything else. Suddenly remembering the boy, Leo looked around and before he could do so much as turn his head he was already sent flying by a kick to his side. He only stopped when his body hit a tree.

He quickly released some of his haki and kept it around him with Ten for protection, he knew a person who could sneak up behind him like that must be quite strong….and a coward. He realized that the kick hit him right on the spot where the bald guy hit him months ago. _Shit…that was nearly healed!_ With a grunt he forced himself up only to be taken aback by the sight of the attacker, he was that guy, the very same guy who kicked him months ago_. It's that bald guy!_

"You learned haki huh? Give it up…whatever mission you have, tell your boss to back off so you don't have to taste my haki anymore than you have to, alright kid?" It was the same darned man that beat him up months ago. _This guy still has the guts to taunt him_, Leo thought in the midst of his anguish.

"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Leo lunged toward him, and threw his haki enhanced punches. The bald man in a fraction of second swiftly tilted his head to the right, down and left and back again to avoid the punches, when he was tired with it all he raised his right palm so that it touched Leo's forehead and then released his haki which stunned his opponent, knowing its effect the guy took the opportunity to punch Leo in the gut. As a result Leo lost his balance and fell to the ground. Wanting to finish it quick the bald guy proceeded to stomp the fallen Leo on the ground. Leo back to his senses felt his opponent's haki and shielded himself by positioning his forearms to a 'X' form from which the bald guy's kicking force will be absorbed. While the bald man was busy and distracted by stomping his shield, thinking he was still the same weakling he faced months ago, Leo launched his shielding forearms outward with great force at the same time the bald guy stomped the center of his shield. It managed to push the bald guy away while giving Leo enough time to get up.

Leo stood up, back in their fighting stances both men kept their distance as they moved around seeking for an opening. Leo started the attack as he rapidly advanced toward the guy and did a flawless jumping side kick but the bald guy ducked with little effort. The bald guy seeing an opening kicked Leo with a high reverse roundhouse kick to his opponent's side, not even giving Leo chance to land from the previous flying kick.

The bald man this time did the offensive but Leo with his haki can still sense him moving around him, then he abruptly moved to the left of Leo, looking to hit Leo's chest but Leo with his trained reflex moved his left forearm to protect his chest and his reflex was right as he felt bone crushing palm punches on the back of his protective left forearm. The bald guy thought the multiple punches were enough to distract him, so the bald guy moved in quickly for a kick but Leo jumped in time. Leo threw several punches at the bald guy to gain some ground and it managed to make the bald guy retreat to a safe distance.

"Geppo" the guy suddenly yelled, with that the the bald man was gone from Leo's line of sight, that was until his haki felt something hovering above him, he looked up and he saw the soles of his shoe coming toward him, very fast, it was apparent that he was planning to let the full force of the gravity to stomp on Leo. Leo immediately jumped back as the bald guy landed at the spot where he stood no less than a second ago. Without giving the bald man time to move Leo delivered a powerful snap kick to his chin, sending the bald man flying.

The bald guy wiped the blood on his mouth as he resumed his stance, right fist in front of his lower face, his side facing Leo with his right elbow covering his ribs "HEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!" Both men yelled as both of them ran toward each other, each with their own technique. But the bald guy with his elbow swing was faster, forcing Leo to abort his punch and duck, while ducking Leo saw an opening, he then quickly proceeded to throw his right palm toward the bald man's exposed left knee and released his haki but not before the bald man managed to knee Leo square in the chest in an attempt to stop Leo's attack. Leo clutched his chest as he fell to the ground face first while the bald guy stood a few seconds more before his hurt knee gave and he too fell.

This time Leo managed to regain his balance just in time to see the bald man's elbow coming toward him, he blocked it with his left arm saving his side from getting hit while immediately with the right fist he sent yet another powerful blow. Leo could feel his haki penetrating the bald guy's. Now he knew what if felt like when a haki touch another haki. It felt like he was punching a magnet-like force that tries to repel everything that touches it. The bald guy coughed blood, but Leo knew the man was still more than capable. It was true, as soon as he recovered he already swung his punch toward Leo's head, but Leo did a side step spin and then elbowed the back of the baldy's head man in return. With his opponent disoriented Leo saw this as an opportunity to disable him once and for all. But before he could realize it, another man swung a roundhouse kick at him. It landed right on his belly sending Leo to the ground. The man prevented Leo from standing up by holding his left leg and then he kicked Leo without much resistance. Leo then lost the man's arm by spinning both of his legs, he quickly stood up only to be greeted by the man's swinging kick which made him fly even further. Leo got back on his feet and dodged the man's attack by abruptly moving back out of his punch's reach. But the man with his haki palm punches still kept coming at him, then in a perfect timing he caught the man's punching arm with both of his hands, pulled it to the space between his legs and then swiftly sent a karate chop down his back and then kneed him in the groin, then he threw the disoriented man to the ground with his right hand still grasping the man's arm and kicked his spine. Leo made sure the man was unconscious before releasing the poor man's arm.

Then he remembered about the bald man, he saw his swinging kick in the corner of his eye coming from behind and with perfect timing he pit the opponent's leg between his side and his left arm while he swung his right elbow backward to the bald man's face this time with full haki, Leo wanting to make sure that the bald man doesn't have enough strength to stand up quickly grabbed his pitted leg with both of his hands and slammed him into a nearby tree, his large body smashed into the tree and he fell into the ground where he gave a finishing kick to the spine. The bald man however was still quite strong he still managed to maintain his consciousness. Leo knew no matter how strong he was, he'd not be able to stand up, at least for an hour or so, that's one helpful killer technique the doctor had taught him, he figured it's a perfect way to finish a fight.

But then to his surprise the bald man stood up, but instead of attacking the surprised Leo he went toward one of the tree and then ripped the strong Blackwood's branch like it was only a mere twig. "You're not going to get rid of me that easily boy" The bald man said while wiping his bloody mouth and nose. Because of the damage the bald guy has sustained Leo could sense that his speed has been reduced. Now he could read most of his moves, making it easier to dodge or counter his attacks. Then unexpectedly Leo slipped and in a blink of an eye he saw the stick coming toward him, with his reflex he reached up with both of his hands, palms touching each other in the bottom to greet the oncoming stick. Successful, the stick landed between the two adjoining palms and Leo closed his palms together in order to grab hold of the stick. Then he pulled the stick over his head, pulling the bald man who refused to let go of the stick on top of him. With the bald man on top of him Leo curled his leg and with his foot on the bald man's stomach he pushed his opponent over his head and onto the ground across the top of his head, Leo spun backward and now he was straddling the bald man. With the stick Leo attempted to choke the bald man with the stick, the bald man tried unsuccessfully to halt the stick as it continues to move down onto his vulnerable neck.

"Hahaha feels great isn't it?" the bald man smiled as if he wasn't the one losing, as if he wasn't the one who's throat about to get smashed.

"Can't accept your loss baldy?" Leo looked up at his taller opponent, with an outraged look, he never had his opponent laughing at him seconds before they lose, this guy's got to have something up his sleeves.

"You think this is all I got?" Leo saw his opponent's hand moving toward his stomach,_ no he can't punch me at this distance, my haki will just…_ "Shigan"

Before Leo knew it he was already on the ground, the stick lying on the ground beside him and a searing hot pain on his stomach. He didn't even care about his opponent anymore. The pain, or rather burn was nothing like he'd ever felt before, no punch or haki ever felt like this. It felt like he was being penetrated by a freshly shot bullet and at that moment he could feel the phantom bullet making its way inside of him, burning everything on its way. He'd never been shot by one before but he just knew it, it felt like it was ten times hotter than boiling water. _How could he…_He saw the bald man's smug face on top of him blocking the clear light blue sky, laughing at him. Leo with all the strength he had left took the stick beside him, amassed all of the haki that he'd left in his left arm and with Gyo he swung it hitting the unsuspecting guy's knee again and again until he fell. With a groan Leo got back to his feet. He stood with the stick supporting his weights while his left hand still soothing the place where it still burns. "I don't know what you did earlier, but you're gonna pay for it!"

"HEY THAT'S ENOUGH!" Leo cursed as he heard somebody yelled something from behind him, interrupting his outburst. _Give me a break!_ feeling tired, he knew he can't possibly fight another thug. All his energy was spent on these guys' haki. But he was relieved when the man turned out to be Danny, _good ole Danny with his lunch_, Leo thought. "Ah hey Danny…good timing…remember my story about the town's bald thug? here he is…not so tough anymore is he? Now come here…help me teach him some lesson" said Leo in between his panting.

"Swing that stick again and you'd be wanted for manslaughter you know that?" he said as he paced toward the two guys on the ground. "Alright just so you know he started it first, I was just looking for a little boy I saw around here, I thought he might be lost then these dumbasses from out of nowhere attacked me! He and his accomplice must have kidnapped him! I'm telling you these thugs have really crossed the line here!" he then tilted his head backward while pinching his nose to stop the bleeding.

"I am not a little boy! I am 13 you know!?" a boy with a white t-shirt and casual blue jeans appeared from behind Danny. _Naah, He can't be 13…he's just a little bit over Danny's waist and that girly voice, he's definitely not a 13 years old! 10 or 11 maybe but not 13! But this_ _boy is the definitely the one I saw earlier_. Aside from that the boy has a golden blonde hair, as seen poking out from his cap and a pair of dreamy blue eyes, it kind of reminded Leo of the innocent-him a few years ago.

"Well…in their defense, it's their duty to protect the Your Highness here from getting hurt" Danny said introducing the 'boy' to the surprised Leo "As if I was going to hurt him!" Leo yelled.

_But wait…what did he say? _

"He's a girl!? And on top of that he's a Princess too? I knew that bald thug hit me a little bit too hard on the head".

Danny shot him a serious look, his face showed some kind of uneasiness. "Yeah right like I'll buy that, a Princess from a kingdom of transvestite maybe" Leo continued laughing while the 'boy' raised his eyebrow

"SHE is in fact the Princess of the kingdom" Leo looked up to see the bald guy has gotten up as well.

"Was that up to Your expectation Princess?" the bald guy 'Berther' asked in the most polite manner that Leo's ever seen him with.

"Hey you're in on this too?" Berther sighed and responded by pulling Leo by the back of his shirt to a nearby tree. When they were out of everyone's sight he produced his ID from his suit pocket and it said that this 'thug' was with the 'Royal Guard', unfortunately for Leo it looked legit enough. "Now I'd be more than happy to see your foolish face on the gallows but I'm afraid she'd do more than just that to all of us if you keep on being an idiot!" Leo just nodded, still a bit confused but he think he got the gist of it. "Hey! You haven't said sorry for…"

"You handled yourself pretty well there" the little 'girl' suddenly appeared beside him. Leo hadn't noticed the little 'girl' moving beside him, maybe because 'she' was quite short compared to his 7' figure or maybe he just didn't care anymore "maybe I haven't made it quite clear to you…" 'she' said as she moved his hand between the peak of the cap and lifted it to reveal a messy tangle of blonde hairs beneath. She straightened the mess with her hands, brushed some off her face and let her hair fall into place over her shoulders. Leo simply replied with the silent opening and closing of his mouth "Ah yes Your Highness this gentleman is Leo, from Iron Home…Leo this is Her Royal Highness Princess Hero of Barthélémy…." Danny introduced Leo to the 'Princess' and Leo decided to play along "Oh It's nice to meet you Your Highness" he said while kissing the palm of 'her' hand. It was the only thing he could think of. He was not aware of Danny's uneasy look in the opposite of him, he shouldn't have kissed the little girl's hand, he shouldn't have touched it at all.

"Likewise" The Princess smiled, apparently not even slightly bothered by it.

"I beg your forgiveness for interrupting your activity Your Highness" said Leo remembering about the painting.

"Oh it's quite alright, please just call me Nessa" Leo just nodded uneasily, he just still couldn't believe that the boy, was a girl!

"So…Nessa, you like to paint huh? It's quite good you know, it looks just like the real one…though honestly I can't understand why people paint when they can snap a photograph anytime, anywhere they want with cameras…" Leo said trying to sound as casual as he can, while giving side glances to the Princess, looking for any kind of bad expression. "It's called as the Romantic painting, if you've been to the Capital's Museum of Fine Arts you'll recognize the influence of Ducy, Samoal and Vinetto in my painting…they're after all my inspirations…" she looked up at Leo, who understood nothing about art, smiling.

"…and about your comment about painters, I can also say the same thing about fighters like you, why fistfight when you can quickly take down opponents faster by shooting them?" Leo just nodded, she made a good point, funny that he never thought about that before though it made him wonder whether shooting a haki practitioner with guns will harm the haki user…I guess this is what's called hobby, though he would not exactly call kicking peoples' backsides or getting his own backside kicked for that matter, his hobby. "Yes! It's because I love to, I love art…do we need excuse to love something? It is a way of expressing myself through colour, form and light. It gives satisfaction and much joy, and I want to pass this on to the viewer who appreciates art as much as I do!" she said standing on the edge of the hill showering in the summer sunlight, arms wide open and her sandy blonde hair flowing with the warm summer breeze "There are just so many colours out there to see…I want to capture their mystery". Though he barely understood what she was saying or even her hobbies, for a moment there he felt something divine and even angelic about her, something out of this world, yes that's the word, she's like a little fairy, _a fairy with jeans_. He felt a weird warm feeling in his loins, he reckoned it wasn't his ribs breaking or spleen bleeding, it's something entirely new to him and it made his heart beating fast he doesn't know what that feeling is but he likes it.

"I guess that makes sense…" he commented while taking a thorough look at the canvas, hoping to make sense of what she was saying by looking at her painting. Quite easily, he found the bright choice of colouring she used. It's almost abnormal as this side of the sea rarely gets that much of sunlight even during summer. Her ability to blend her feelings so well with the 'realist-theme' painting amazed him. She used an unusually bright shade for the forest and still it looks realistic. Now that he thought about it, it's the first time he was really engrossed in something other than fishing and learning new fighting techniques. _So does the bright colour mean she's in bright mood?_

"Is it done?" Leo asked Nessa about the painting. Nessa who was still savouring the view from the edge of the hill turned her head to see what Leo was talking about "Yes, I just need to add my name on it then I can show it to Papa, he's going to be so proud of me" she said with that trademark Cheshire cat smile of her.

"Hey Leo, you done flirting with the Princess? We got works to do remember?" Danny interrupted. Apparently he's managed to persuade the bodyguards to let Leo go but how he managed to make them forget about their illegal logging activity Leo doesn't know and doesn't want to know, he was just glad that he's off their hooks knowing now that they're actually not thugs but actual Royal Guards. _At least for now they are…they could still be just thugs_

"See you Leo…" the Princess bid him farewell after Leo had bid his by bowing to the little Princess.

"Well…anyway Berther, this boy here is with me so you don't need to attack him the next time you feel the need to" Berther, the name of the bald man, just grumbled behind them while straightening his disheveled shirt and black tie.

After they'd moved Leo and Danny's trees to Danny's cabin, Danny invited him for lunch though the orange sky suggested it was already way too late for lunch. Danny prepared him some extra scrambled eggs and sandwich and also some meat, a compliment for putting up a good fight against the smug Berther earlier, apparently Danny hates him too.

"You know Leo, if somebody asked me whether you're a match to that bald bastard or not, I'd laugh and tell him that you're years too early to even challenge him…" said Danny, the guys are now seated in the front porch of Danny's cabin. "But the energy you released in that fight…I know it's no beginner's" Danny said.

"I don't know about that Danny, I can't even crush a boulder with my haki, I think it's because I was angry…you know that was the second time that he beat me up like that" Leo said, unbeknownst to Danny, Leo was quite flattered by the man's appraisal of him.

Danny chuckled "No it doesn't work like that Leo…I was thinking it's probably because you're not wearing your sea stone bracelet?" he said as he picked Leo's bracelet, which must have fallen during the fight, from his breast pocket and put it on the table directly in front of him then he lowered his head, chin resting on his thumbs on the table surface, the piercing amber eyes of his stared at him. In a second Leo was overwhelmed by a sense of dread he couldn't think of an explanation for Danny without implying that he's an ability user. This was the first time that he was found out like this, _Damn how come I didn't realize that!_

"Don't you worry Leo, your secret's safe with me…I just want to warn you…some people recognize sea stone when they see one, it'll look very suspicious around here where it's rare if you're caught wearing one especially here, it's too obvious you know what I mean? You're just lucky you didn't show those guys your fruit power otherwise you'd be on your way to jail right now" Danny explained. Leo just sighed with relief.

"And what's your deal with those government guys anyway? How come they're okay with our activities?" he asked, interested at the fact that Danny seemingly knows everybody in the town.

"Let's just say they owe me a favor" Danny said while playing with his coin as usual, rolling it back and forth over his fingers, it seems to be his favorite pastime.

After some times spent chatting with Danny, revealing that the 'shigan' was the secret weapon used by the top echelon of the World Government agents and Marine and that he could forget about learning it Leo finally called it a day. As he opened the front door Danny called him.

"Leo, before you go I just want you to understand that there's a lot of things you don't know about those guys, you're safe because I was with you, one thing you must never do is to get close to the Princess, she's no ordinary girl, her family is no ordinary…trust me you don't want to be near them especially with your condition"

"Who are they?"

"They're a member of the World Noble"


	9. Ohara Tragedy

Day three

"I thought your 'client' only ordered 3 trees? I'm sure it's more than enough for making rails"

"There's one more actually, a guy from East Blue, really shady" Leo just nodded while picking up his axe, he guessed, when you've been dealing in illegal trading for years you can't ask for anything clearer than that as you can never be too careful about anything.

"Is this good?" Leo referred to the haki that he's managed to accumulate in his arm hoping that it was good enough a Gyo as Danny had expected. Danny looked up from the sharpening of his axe and nodded.

"Good enough, but you might want to allocate a little to your legs just to make sure you've got a good grip on both sides" Leo shrugged his head.

"It's quite basic really, if you want to launch energy toward one direction you also need to have the same amount of energy to the opposite direction, it's what's called as recoil, I'm sure you've heard it" following Danny's advice Leo planted his foot firmly on the ground. He then inhaled as he raised the axe and with great power swung it down along with his exhalation. The result was a gaping clean cut the shape of the head of the axe on the wood. Not as big as Danny's but Leo was quite proud of it.

"Good, very good Leo, but it's nothing compared to this" Danny swung the axe and a huge explosion rang from the point of impact. Leo noticed the shock wave he felt days ago now clearly, it was cutting the insides of the tree, a straight horizontal line from the edge of the axe was formed alongside the width of the trunk. The result was nothing short of impressive. The little axe has somehow slashed the tree almost all the way into the center from their side. What he didn't notice was Danny's arms' muscle flexing in an attempt to absorb all the energy that the powerful impact has released his way.

"Wow that's impressive" a kid's voice from behind them interrupted the rush.

"Your Highness!" Danny quickly dropped his axe and bowed down while Leo casually approached the 'little kid' and lazily bowed down to the cap wearing Princess.

"I thought you've finished your picture"

"Yea I was bored so I decided to take a walk" Leo looked around for a certain bald man in a black suit or the soles of his shoe flying toward his face but nobody was around "well actually I took a run" the Princess said playfully noticing Leo's worried look. Leo sighed in relief at that while the Princess passed him by toward the tree they were cutting before.

"Uhm…Princess what are you doing?" Danny asked as he saw the Princess picking up his axe with both of her small hands which looks really disproportionate with the Princess' small figure.

"I wanna test my haki power too" the Princess walked around the tree to do the 'back cut' though the men doubted she even knew what that was. She was just rather sloppily looking for a surface to stomp the axe on with her 'haki'. _She's going to make a fool out of herself! She's barely taller than the axe itself _Leo just chuckled at the thought.

"Your Highness I don't think that's such a good idea" the Princess didn't bother, she swung the axe and a similar but less impressive explosion noise was produced then the tree began to shake meaning that the tree was going to fell soon and the Princess just stood still below it apparently proud of it.

"How was…" before the Princess finished the sentence Leo was already pushing her away onto the ground with his body atop shielding her away from the falling tree and other debris. The tree fell as the trunk gave and a huge dull sound was heard as the gigantic tree hit the ground.

For what seemed like hours the Princess and Leo laid there on the ground, the Princess still shocked laid unmoving, Leo didn't know whether that was because of the near death experience or the fact that a mere peasant like him was lying so boldly on top of her. So Leo immediately got back on his feet while offering her a hand to get up.

"Whew heheheh that was close! Well done Leo" Danny was suddenly beside Leo patting his shoulder a bit harder than usual, he didn't seem to notice the cold sweat running down the surface of his face. But seeing the Princess lying there, empty blue eyes looking at the sky paled Danny's face again, "are you alright Your Highness?" asked the concerned Danny trying to sound as calm as possible. Suddenly her eyes shot toward the source of the sound and she grabbed Leo's offering hand and pulled herself up "yeah, I'm alright".

* * *

Minutes later

Leo was walking nervously alone with the Princess. He wondered why Danny had let him take a walk with her alone in the woods when he was the one who told him right to his face not to get close to her! _Just how powerful is she that he can't even say no to this little kid? And this whole 'World Noble' thing._

"What is it?" suddenly the Princess pierced the deafening awkward silence

"What?"

"Come on, you've been giving me the cold shoulder since the morning we met, what's the matter?"

Leo thought for seconds whether to be honest or not, he was afraid this would have had a very negative impact on Danny and himself, "promise you're not going to get mad at what I'm gonna say?" Leo looked down hoping that she wouldn't, "depends" she said that with that playful tone of hers, as if they were longtime friends.

"Yesterday, when I went up the hill after I saw you, you sent your bodyguards to jump me right?"

"What made you say that?"

"Again I'm sorry if this offends you, but I remembered something about the bald guy Berther asking you whether the fight was up to your expectations or something…" he looked down to see the Princess was apparently not slightly surprised or affected by Leo's statement.

"and…and it's impossible for us to fight that long without you noticing, a fight like that's got to draw attention even if you were gone to take a leak or something and you did nothing to stop him! He's your bodyguard, under your leash, he wouldn't have done that if it wasn't based on someone's order! So now don't play all innocent and sweet in front of me, you might own this country but I'm not afraid of you!"

The little Princess in front of him suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Leo stopped behind her, despite what he'd said earlier about how he wasn't afraid of her he really was just caught up in the mood. _Damn I wasn't thinking! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid Leo!_

She began to walk again "yes, it's true I let Berther fight you"

"Wh…"

"Why is because I'm a fighter like you too Leo, I learn from fights therefore I can learn what their specialty is and their weaknesses…"

Leo was a bit surprised at that, he wouldn't have guessed that she was into martial art or anything related to it. Her trained haki could be a result of the bald guy or somebody else applying it to her to protect her, yes haki can be used that way "are you saying you want to fight me? Is that why you're bringing me out here?"

"Well, I do believe that having a good rival is the only way you're going to advance and Berther don't have the guts to fight me because he's so by the book"

Leo just chuckled at that "sorry but I don't think with a figure like that you can go far"

She abruptly turned toward him "don't you get it? THAT is my advantage"

"What? Fighting in a body of a child so they'll pity you?"

The Princess sighed "…men with their brawn…having a large body is a liability, your vital points are more exposed and your response are slower, you're not as flexible as the small bodied-ones"

"Logically yes, but smaller body means it'll hurt more if somebody attacks you, your body is so small that you won't even block a kick or punch entirely!"

"That's why smaller body is more flexible and faster! We don't block, we dodge as many as we could" s_he got a point_ Leo thought

"I suppose your 'speed' will have to bear the short range of your attack too?" she didn't answer but this has made Leo longing for a match with her just to prove her that small body doesn't always mean victory, besides this is a good opportunity to fight with a foe with a much smaller body than his, living in North Blue you rarely fight a small opponent and a female one at that too.

"I like your principle but you can't expect to be small forever you know…you're thirteen for Gylfen's sake!"

"How do you think I could keep this shape at thirteen?" at that Leo was thoroughly and utterly surprised.

"You purposefully did that to your own body? Now most girls I know think they're not 'growing' enough and here you are suppressing it just for a bit of advantage, I mean you're a girl you're going to still be smaller than most of your foes even without you meddling around, that's assuming they're men"

"Still that is NOT enough! You're lucky you're born a man, there's not one single day goes by without me cursing myself for being born a girl" Leo was startled, he never knew he was a lucky man. _If only she knew…_ _this girl got some issues, yesterday I thought she was the total opposite of me with her painting hobby now I think she's an even crazier martial artist than me!_

"Just what is it that makes you obsessed with this? It's got to be really great…."

"Enough with it, we're here" she turned as Leo looked around and realized that this was the same river where he and his friends often visit for camping or just hangout. They're in a little beach in a wide and open river bank. The forest didn't cover this part of the beach and seemed suitable enough except for the sandy ground for a match, but he was sure he doesn't need to worry about that when fighting against this 'kid'.

"You sure you want to do this?" the Princess showed her seriousness by immediately entering her unique fighting stance. She kept her head low, arms in front protecting the front of her body and she kept moving left and right in an elaborate footing technique making it difficult for Leo to target her vital points. _I guess this is what she said as advantage…but still with that height she won't even…_

Before he could finish his thought Leo quickly stepped back. If he hadn't focused his sight on her feet movements the weird high spinning kick would have got him

"Don't hold back on me" she said that as she made a high snap kick.

"Alright, you're asking for it" it was now Leo's turn to attack, he started with overwhelming his opponent with barrage of punches which she managed to block and dodge, an amazing feat considering her small arms, but it was to be expected from a haki practitioner. It was just a mere distraction from what was to come. To the Princess his punches were quite easy it made her suspicious and she was right as she saw his feet coming for her face. She smiled and ducked, she never knew it'd be this easy, but come to think of it all of her fights are almost always ended up with this killing technique of hers and only a small body can support the speed and agility which is needed for this technique to work. As Leo's feet kicked the air, the ducking Princess spun and prepared her Gyo. The little time that Leo needed to pull his feet back was all she needed for her to blast her exposed opponent to oblivion. That's why speed matters. But Leo aware of her plan in a split second spun around his opponent, left feet haven't even fully extracted yet. The Princess looked back in surprise, Leo in less than a second had not only managed to avoid her killer attack but also somehow did it with only one of his legs. Leo quickly skipped forward and threw his elbow, but the shocked Princess threw her head back to avoid the elbow just in time but Leo anticipated this by opening his folded arm, now his arm fully extended have wider reach, her head unable to stay out of Leo's range any further received it on the temple by Leo's side knuckle punch.

As a result of the punch the Princess flew and fell on her back. Still on the ground she clutched the side of her head. Leo was surprised she didn't faint from that knowing that she hasn't restored her haki around her from futilely using Gyo earlier. But he was sure she's done for the day.

"You okay?" Leo asked while extending his hand, the Princess looked up at him and grabbed his hand.

"I felt dizzy…" now 'dizzy' was an understatement, at least he could see the contusion starting to get even more prominent and darker too. It reminded him of the one he got from the bald guy a long time ago. He wished it wasn't that bad though.

"Alright just lie there, take some rest while I go back for Danny alright?"

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?" _as expected from dear Danny..._

"Let me explain first alright! She asked me to spar with her and who am I to refuse her? After all I'm just an ordinary peasant boy" Leo said trying to get back on Danny after the latter allowed the Princess to 'borrow' him.

"You..you.." Danny pointed his finger at Leo "I can't believe it" Danny muttered gibberish things as he moved around trying to get back to his senses. Leo's got him good.

"What are we going to tell to her parents?"

"I don't know! So do you have some bandages or not? She's bruising really bad"

"Yeah I got it in my cabin…I think, I'll go take a look while you go back there and attend to her! I don't want any more incidents you hear me!"

* * *

Back in the river Leo saw the Princess lying under the shade of a tree, she looked like she was asleep as he sat beside her.

"I underestimated you" Leo looked down to see the Princess still have her eyes closed but definitely awake now.

"I know the feeling, it's very tempting…when you see victory right in front of you, you forget about anything else because it is really close, my father once told me that and I've also learned it the hard way too"

"I guess it's also…because this is my first time that…I ever fought seriously with someone…"

"What do you mean?"

"All I ever got as sparring partners were Papa and the bodyguards…and with every practice Papa has to be present and me being a Princess, makes them nervous and let me have it easy…"

"Well it's rational, after all they're your 'bodyguards' clearly they don't want anything bad to happen to you, besides why learn the dangerous world of martial art when you can have as many monsters as you want to protect you? I'm starting to get the feeling this is more than just for the sake of self-defense"

"And you learn haki to be a town thug?"

"What!? Of course not! Who said that!? I'm going to be the Royal Guard one day"

"Well I guess you better treat me nicely then"

"But you still haven't answered my quest…" before he could finish it the frantic sound of Danny pierced the quiet river bank.

"Over here Danny!" Leo sighed

"Are you okay Your Highness?" Danny knelt down and took a look at the bruise, now dark blue. He grimaced.

"I don't know...the headache is getting worse" Danny turned his head toward Leo and handed him the first aid

"What is this?"

"You're the doctor's son!"

"Yeah so?"

"So wrap the bandage around her!" Realizing that he would only waste his and the Princess' precious time by arguing with Danny, Leo took the first aid and unwrap the bandage. He then lifted the Princess' head a bit and secured the bandage tightly around her head with some cold wet cotton covering the bruised part. The result was quite neat, Leo has to admit it, maybe it's because of years of helping the doctor operate on people but he knew no matter how good it was they'd have to get some ice soon if it was going to heal well.

"We have to bring her back before we got price on our heads"

Leo was about to nod when he looked a big lunchbox behind Danny "look what time it is? I think it's lunch time, the Princess said she was hungry, she can have mine (lie)"

"Alright but make it fast, we also still got some jobs need to be done" Danny said as he unwrapped the plastic bag covering the lunch boxes and grabbed his.

"Just take the woods to your cabin right? Easy"

"Well…I've been thinking…" Leo stopped his eating, _don't tell me we have to cut a dozen more trees_

"Nah it's not that!" Danny yelled, somehow he knew exactly what Leo was thinking " I've been thinking since this summer you're not going anywhere…why don't you help me out transporting the goods to my client over in East Blue" that was so nice of Danny to bring Leo for the first time out of 'his' native sea…_there could be great adventures waiting for me there!_

"Pay's good?" Leo being Leo just had to keep his cool

Danny smirked "You don't have to worry about your pay when I deliver those things to my client, food is on me as usual"

"It's a deal!" fired up, Leo shook Danny's hand hard, soon he realized his mistake as Danny began to crush his hand again.

"Uhhh...Leeeooo whut did yoou giive to mmeee...?" both men turned their heads back to find the Princess apparently high on drugs.

"Uh oh, i think i gave her a wrong dosage"

"You should turn her back to her parents before this could get any worse"

"What about you?"

"Uh...uhmm..i still have something to do here..."

"You're just saying that! Come on don't let me go there alone, she'g got that bald guy and other ninjas holed up in that mansion"

"Well it's not me who gave her all this" Danny put his hand on his head to mimic Nessa's predicament.

"...besides they know it already"

Leo's eyes widened at that. He mouthed "Really?"

"Yep, she has a tail"

* * *

On her way home

"So you spend your summer in the Peak often?"

"What? No, we usually change places…Papa like to stay in new places so he can get to know locals better" the blond boy nodded

"Are you usually this adventurous though? Meeting and picking fights with strangers..."

"No…you wouldn't recognize me if you'd known me 2 years earlier, but I'd rather not talk about it"

"Alright so how long will you be staying here? I could be your tour guide"

"I'd love that thanks, i'd be staying here for 3 days more, then we'll go back since Papa can't leave the office for too long…and it's been how many months already!"

"That's good, perfect" the couple then stopped in front of the all too familiar front yard of the vacation home, the same yard where Leo got beat up months ago. On impulse Leo checked his surrounding, he'd vowed to himself yesterday that he was done getting ambushed by anybody especially that bald thug.

"Alright, tomorrow morning at eight maybe in Wolves Café?"

"Sounds good to me"

"See you then"

"See you Princess" Leo bowed down a little, now a little more refined. _Whew, thank God the drugs wore off quickly!_

* * *

Nessa let out a sigh as she closed the door behind her. He didn't know how to explain her disappearance to his parents nor does she have one for the bandage wrapped around her head, knowing her parents she knew they wouldn't take this likely. Nessa pulled down the cap she was wearing further down her head, she hoped it wasn't that obvious. She then tiptoed to her bedroom and hoped to lock herself there until she could find good explanation to this. But she didn't go very far when she bumped into somebody's hard chest, and unfortunately she thinks she knew just to whom that chest belongs to. She slowly looked up from under her cap and saw her father standing tall before her, his face showed nothing but concern. She sighed with relief at least she's spared from his wrath for now. "Nessa".

"Who is he?"

"Just a boy I met in town"

"He did this to you?" her father raised his hand and took off her daughter's cap to reveal the bandage.

"I heard he's quite the fighter"

"H…how did you!?" Nessa yelled, clearly startled because she's done all her best to stealthily escape form the confinement of her bodyguards, and they've also found a way to track her down and she didn't even feel their presence through her haki.

"Wait…if they were there why didn't they try to stop me like they've been doing all this time?"

"Because I know you'll do it again and again until you get what you want, you're stubborn like that…I figure you'll keep doing it until you realize that there are so many stronger people out there! Even a random lumberjack could beat you up like this, when are you going to learn that this isn't some kind of a destiny it's a death wish!"

"If you think I'm going to give it up just because I lost to some 'random lumberjack' then you're wrong Papa"

"Listen to yourself Nessa Dear…this isn't you…"

"The second he came back to us like that I knew this was my destiny!" her father just shook her head, he put his large hands on her little shoulders and sighed "…knowing him…do you think that he'd want you to grow up like this?" _and we came back to this again…!_

Cannot possibly stand with it anymore Nessa stormed outside, anywhere her legs could carry her as far away from her parents as possible, quickly before they could change her mind, before they could make her forget the promise she's made. _They don't understand, they'd never understand how much I've missed him, how I so long to just see his smile again…how I wished I could take it all back before all of this happened…they'll NEVER understand!_

* * *

Since Leo remembered the doctor was supposed to come back tonight Leo has been catching up with the accumulating chores he's been neglecting since days ago. He wished he could clean the dishes and do laundry with his haki. Leo was just finishing his house chores when he heard knocks on the door. He quickly put down the laundry basket he was carrying, wiped the sweat off his forehead and proceeded to answer it. "Sorry but the doctor is..." Leo stopped midway as he was shocked the second he saw his late guest which was no other than the Princess herself. Apparently she forgot to put on her cap and also she's been crying, and he thought he knows why. Leo told her to come in and sit down on the couch while Leo went to prepare some drinks.

"Care to tell me what happened?" Leo asked as he sat down on the couch with her, he passed the cup of soothing freshly brewed green tea to her.

"Leo…" she whimpered. _She seemed to be hesitating about something..._

"Uhm…I just came here to take you up on your offer to be my guide, can we go like…now?"

Leo clapped his hands as he got up "sure! Let's go"

The couple chatted about all kinds of things, especially about martial arts since she still refused to tell him what was going on. He found out that one doesn't have to spend months meditating to be able to see his haki. She said a haki practitioner could 'force' open the eye of the haki that enables a person to see haki physically. Also she told him that he knew about 'shigan' and any other secret techniques, turns out she wanted to learn it all just as badly as he does but her father denied her pleads for obvious reasons.

By the time they arrived at the 'beautiful spot' that he mentioned it was already dark. The aforementioned spot was the hill where they first met. Leo pointed his finger toward the view of the 'Or Mountain and as she looked up she couldn't hide her awe at the spectacular view before her. The mountain was even more beautiful at night with what Leo called as 'aurora' in the sky and the Mountain with its strange feature reflecting the colorful and mystical 'aurora' on its surface. It looks as if the rolling mountain was part of the magical sky itself.

"I've never been there, but my father told me the whole Mountain was covered by thick ice, not snow but frozen cold ice, the reflective nature of the clear ice is what makes the Mountain always have the same colour as the sky…"

"It's wonderful…"

They sat there with the entire forest lit only by the moonlight, marveling the beauty for like hours before the Princess broke the serene silence

"Leo…"

"…do you think taking revenge is right?"

"It depends" Leo said after much thought and he also had decided to not talk about the fate of his Pirate father to her

"What? what do you mean?" asked the girl puzzled

"'Right' is relative, from my point of view taking revenge is wrong but you might have some justification as to why you want to take that revenge which I believe if I had I'd see it as the right thing to do"

"So you mean as long as I have strong reason to do it…"

"Since you're not going to tell me what the hell is happening to you, I can't judge your decision"

There were a moment of quietness as the Princess tried to hold back her tears, Leo could see her struggling inside, more tears were starting to fill her blue eyes and the moonlight reflected in her eyes perfectly conveyed her emotion.

"I…It's about someone I loved very dearly….more than anything else in the world…and is…taken away from me"

After a long pause and thorough consideration Leo decided to ask "…who?"

"My brother" then Leo's eyes lighted up, he remembered reading it in the doctor's newspaper years ago, about the death of the Kingdom's Crown Prince. The event was really big with the Kingdom's flag flown at half mast, and people from around the Kingdom mourning and shops closing for days. It was a very gloomy day. _I should have known! Well…in my defense the event was a long time ago_

"Ah I remembered reading it, he was killed in a war years ago, I was really saddened hearing that…the country's only Crown Prince gone at such a young age with so much potential…" it was true, he heard the Prince was quite an adventurer…at the age of 17 and he was already sailing around the world alone 'exploring' despite his status and also his family's adamant refusal to let him go, it must have hurt knowing how it's turned out and knowing how it could have been prevented if only...

"True, except…he didn't really die and he wasn't involved in any war" Leo looked up, clearly surprised to hear it.

"IT ISN'T A WAR! IT'S A MASSACRE!"

"What is?"

"Ohara" at the mention of the foreign name Leo wrinkled his brows in confusion

"I know I can trust you…right Leo" the Princess looked up looking for something in his eyes, now the unrestrained tears starting to stream down her young angelic face one by one. Leo jsut smiled as he gently wiped the tear streaks off her cheek with his thumb, "...of course"

Nessa smiled weakly and nodded "our Kingdom have secretly been supporting the Ohara archeologists in their research…" _that didn't sound deadly at all..._thought Leo

"Two years ago through several captured Oharan archeologists, the World Government suspicion about its unwanted activity was confirmed and it decided to silence Ohara once and for all…my brother was there of all places, somehow he knew of the oncoming raid but he came a little bit too late…the moment he got there the Marines were already there and instead of killing him like what they did with cold blood to the rest they captured him because they knew who he was" Leo started to put the puzzles together and he dreaded to hear what was about to be told to him by the sobbing Princess.

"…And they tortured him! But he was a stupid stubborn boy, he always has been, he kept his silence regarding our Kingdom's involvement and they kept going at it until…until they finally broke his mind" by that time Leo's already had one hand covering his mouth, how could he not know of such terrible incident…he couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like for her brother to have to suffer such things.

Leo reached out and embraced the Princess, forget about the stories and revenge, this was all she need right now, a shoulder for her to cry on. _She's been through a lot._

* * *

"You know what you're up against right?" Leo asked now on their way home.

"I'll have no regrets" _that's good spirit but who's going to rule this Kingdom?_ Leo thought, he's been considering to say his thoughts to her but he decided to leave that to her parents

"You know Leo…even though I've only known since yesterday somehow I felt like I've known you since I was a child, you're like a best friend I wish to God I had…and for that I'm really grateful to have met you here…and sorry for having Berther kick your ass, but it was fun while it lasted" she giggled

Leo smiled, he didn't know why some people could have a 180 degree change like that in less than an hour. An hour ago she was bawling like a baby and talking about revenge and things, now she was making fun of him. "Yeah I just have one of those faces…" Leo joked which got him a jab to his side.

"Are you sure you don't want to have dinner with us?"

"Nah…my stomach isn't for those fancy stuffs you guys serve…besides my father's coming home tonight, I don't want him to come and find the kitchen empty" she just smiled understandingly "Alright Leo, thanks for your little tour, I really appreciate it"

"Hey don't mention it"

* * *

"Leo I'm home!" an appreciative sniffing sound was heard from the middle room.

"Don't come here, just wait a minute, I've got something special prepared for ya" Leo yelled from the kitchen

"It smells like a STEAK!"

"Aww…you always guessed it all!"

"Can't help it, it smells really great" the doctor said, he was seated at the table, complete with knife and fork in each hand, napkin tucked into his collar as Leo came out of the kitchen bringing two plates of special sizzling tri-tip steaks, it's the doctor's favorite and he was lucky to have it at a bargain at the town so that means he still have plenty of those juicy steaks. Without further ado the doctor devoured the meal like he was a hungry carnivorous lion.

Leo has just sliced his first piece of the delicious meat he's proudly grilled when he looked up to find the doctor has finished it all, down to the potatoes and the little corns which he usually didn't eat. _Just how far is this town! …_Leo thought

"That hit the spot!" The doctor burped and then proceeded to clean the mess on his mouth with the napkin "so Leo...tell me, how's your day?"


	10. The East Blue Crossing

"LEO LEO WAKE UP!"

"Huhh" it was the only response Leo could conjure before he sluggishly turned in his hammock. Nothing could disturb his in his sleep, nothing. It's been waves after waves, storm after storm in his journey to another Sea and he'd kill to have a few more hours of sleep. He swore whoever it was has the guts to wake him up like this he'd kill him.

"Come on, you've got to see this!" _it's Danny_, _well…I guess I could make an exception_

"Go away Danny, I earn this" Leo said half-awake

"I don't think you'll want to miss this Leo" Leo felt Danny's hand lifting his ankle then he began to put Leo's shoes back on.

"Is it a Pirate attack again…? I'll pass thanks" _damn him and his endless supply of energy, I'm still a human! I need rest_

"Do you want a bucket of cold water on your face Leo?"

"Alright alright I'll get up!"

"That's my boy, meet me on the deck once you're all dressed up alright" _Dress up? Is he joking or what_

Leo reluctantly got up from his hammock and yawned as he looked around him. The quarter was damp and dark as usual but from the smell and loud overlapping snores he could tell there were hundreds of people sleeping, huddled together in this damned room. He wondered why these people hadn't gone crazy with this kind of living, he knows he will if he stays in here any longer. One day into the journey with his newfound sea sickness Leo already despised traveling the sea. One week forward he despised it even more. He can barely sleep with all the snoring, the acidic smell of the crews' all days' work and the sound of footsteps and creaking that never seemed to cease. At least on land the 'ground' doesn't rock and wake you up every few seconds.

Leo put on his still wet shirt and trousers and cursed when he found his socks wet. "Dammit, is this too much to ask?" Leo lazily hobbled outside and met Danny on the upper deck. Because of the closed nature of the quarter telling time was difficult for Leo but as he climbed up into the upper deck he realized it was still early in the morning which means he's only slept for no more than three hours. _He better have a good reason for this!_

"Danny tell me something, what do you feel when you feel really sleepy and suddenly some bastard woke you up and tell you to get up?"

Danny rolled his eyes "Sssshh…just follow me" Danny walked toward the front of the ship and having no energy to do anything else Leo followed obediently. Walking with face facing the ground, the wet, moldy wooden deck has never looked so tempting for the exhausted Leo but he knew Danny would throw him overboard if he didn't do as he said.

He then almost unconsciously climbed the stairs leading to the forecastle deck (the foremost deck) and saw Danny at the edge of the deck, hands gripping the railing. _What is this?_

Leo joined Danny near the railing and he looked down on Leo, his wide enthusiastic smile extended from one end of his ear to the other. He looked comically like what he had imagined a goofy character in the book that he reads would look like real life, "What do you see?"

Leo looked up and searched for an island, like what he's been doing for the last few days because he couldn't stand the wild waves that seemed to love to toy with the ship, playing it as if it was a yoyo or something "I see water, more water and a boring mist ahead"

"Look more closely Leo!"

"Did you see an iceberg? You should go see the Captain"

Danny tapped his head from the back and told him to look more closely, so Leo squinted his sleepy and watery eyes to catch the thing that Danny had wanted him to see so badly so he could go back to sleep. Then he saw it, a dark shadow behind the mist, _a mountain? No, mountains don't look like that, it looks like a cliff, a gigantic red one and this ship's going to crash into it if it doesn't…wait a second, there's no way to go…it extends all the way, we can't go forward! _

"We should go tell the Captain, how come the lookout doesn't see this!?" Now Leo was widely awake and was about to make a dash into the bridge to warn people.

"Relax Leo, it's just the Red Line" Leo turned his head, his looks quizzical, "what did you say?"

"the Red Line" then Leo remembered, this was the famed 'wall' that separates the World's Seas into six Seas that Danny talked about in one of his adventures story. He thought it was just a political term since he's never seen it and the thought of such natural barrier was imaginary at best. Being a son of a genius scientist Leo grew up with logics, things that make sense so he didn't believe 'mystical stuff' that many sailors recounted in their books until it's been proven otherwise. 'All Blue', 'Floating island', 'Cursed Sea', 'Dragons', 'Life in Moon' or 'Sky Island', those books are just as credible as those bedtime story tales. But recent events in his life, namely the introduction of haki and now this 'sea wall' made him wonder whether some things are just not meant to be explained by logic alone.

As the ship got nearer Leo now could see vertical line cutting the walls in half, a line as narrow as a piece of upright hair. It was so narrow he couldn't have possibly noticed it a minute ago. Leo didn't know why but he felt a rush in his head, he just couldn't believe that he was going to exit his home Sea for the first time and enter a completely new and foreign Sea. He felt like he was a Pirate or some explorers.

He felt the current getting faster and faster as the ship got nearer to the small canal. He gripped the railing as he looked up and realized for the first time that the narrow passage wasn't entirely on the sea level, in fact it was ascending up into the foggy top of the mountain and the current flowed upward too, denying everything he's learned about gravity.

"Leo come on, we've got to go inside" he felt Danny tugging on his shirt, realizing that he didn't want to be out here when the ship started to 'climb' the mountain Leo turned around and ran with Danny to the lower deck. Despite the strong wind there were still some crews climbing the rigging trying to adjust the sail with the wind speed. In the weeks that he's been staying here Leo has come to respect these guys in spite of their minimal care for hygiene, before he ever set foot on a ship like this he thought sailing a ship was only a matter of unfurling the sail when there's wind and stow it when there's nothing but these weeks have proven him that it was much more than that. It again, added up to Leo's confusion as to why anybody would choose this kind of occupation and risk their lives every single day for little to no pay.

"Hey, you're spacing out again"

"…ah no I was just wondering why these guys would choose this kind of life, it kind of sucks don't you think?" Leo said apparently forgetting the 'ex-Pirate' status of his traveling companion.

Danny just chuckled at that "The world is a tough place Leo…not many people…like them for example can survive in what you'd call as the 'normal and better' world. In here, they're all the same, _free_ from the _shackles_ of a hierarchy put in place long before _their time__. _They have nothing to lose and they're free of what the so-called high society' dictates us what to do and how to go about our lives…it's the lives of the Pirates Leo. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" Danny stared out into the space forlorningly, reminiscing days gone by. Leo still couldn't understand it, but he thought it was probably because he had it easy, and these guys probably didn't have the same upbringing and opportunity as he fortunately had.

2 days later

The ship, a ship sent by Danny's client to pick them up and carry the goods has finally arrived at the destination. The island was nice and warm, and the sand was perfect white as reflected from the shallow and clear water surrounding it. Nothing could be seen from the ship but a few sparse tall palm trees and some bushes. No villages or any structure visible.

"What the hell is this place?" Leo whispered to Danny who was walking beside him as they passed the woods and entered a very rural looking village. Some of the single story houses didn't have glass windows and a few didn't even have doors. The alleyways were narrow and maze-like. It was unsettling that just minutes ago he guessed this island was uninhabited. Now that he thought about it, the tidy beach and sleepy sparse forest could very well be a façade to fool the authorities.

"Typical East Blue squatter…it's good place to do some shady deals"

"Good place for ambush too, have you seen the Pirate ships anchored out there at the dock? This could be one of those Pirate villages reported in the news for Gylfen's sake"

"So? You don't think we can't take them on do you?" Leo rolled his eyes at that

Then suddenly they stopped in front of a small square house made out of clay and dirt, it looks just like any other houses only this one has several people guarding them. They looked like they mean business. "He's in?" Danny asked, still in his relaxed manner. The guard nodded, and after frisking the both of them he opened the door to reveal a very simple and small square main room painted with light blue, there were only a desk at the other side of the room, a little shelf with several books and a big map on the wall behind the desk. A man was writing something on the map, his back to them.

"How are you gentlemen?" said the dark-haired man as he turned around and greeted them from behind his desk. The man was a few inches taller than Leo, quite tall for East Blue standard. He couldn't be older than 30-something and he has a weird set of sideburns that go down to the corner of his jaws. Leo also noticed the man was quite burly even in that black, v-neck, long sleeved tee shirt of his that really showed his great pecs.

"Good, now let's get down to business shall we"

"You're in a hurry I see…" the man spoke in his distinct hoarse guttural voice. Leo didn't know if it was his natural voice or that he was trying to intimidate them.

"Yeah with that many ships in the dock it's only a matter of time before the Marines show up and I don't want to get caught in the little fiasco that'll surely ensue"

"You don't think we can handle them Mister Danny?"

Danny sighed "Well…I don't want to be rude but this is after all the weakest Sea of all Seas to be frank with you"

The man didn't seem to be at the slightest bit affected by it as his smile just got even wider "And I'd like to prove them wrong, making this Blackwood ship is a start"

"And forming all those armadas? I tell you as a man who've traveled and survived Grand Line Mister Krieg…that the size of your crew hardly matter in there"

"That so? Then we better be careful then"

"Alright, your crews have checked the stuff and I take it they've informed you?"

"Yes, but there's a slight problem to that"

_Oh brother._ Leo muttered under his breath, he knew these kind of things would happen

"Your price is too high" he growled. Danny smiled as he leaned back on his chair

Krieg motioned his goons to enter and in a second there were what seemed to be dozens of guns pointed at their heads from every direction, even from the open windows of the squalor of a house. Danny raised his hands in defeat, but still smiling "you're making a big mistake here...do you know who I am?"

"Oh I know you very well Mr. Danny, your full name is Daniel d'Olonnais, the only surviving lieutenant of the defunct Ironade Pirates, with 247 million beli bounty on your head I'm hoping your death at my hands will make my name mean something in Grand Line" it was the first time Leo heard Danny's full name and he wasn't surprised at the bounty, a man as powerful as him is bound to have a high bounty.

"Bring them outside and execute them immediately, I don't want their brains messing my shirt!"

With hands still in the air both men stood up from their chairs and let themselves be pulled roughly outside. Once outside the goons released their hold and pushed them into a corner, back facing a wall. It was obvious that Danny would just let his haki deflect the bullets and use it as an element of surprise to pounce on these poor bastards but Leo didn't know whether his haki was strong enough to do such incredible thing. _Did he not know this?_

"Looks like it's the end for you bro" a sound from somewhere inside Leo's head suddenly said

"Not now"

"I don't mean to be wise or anything but judging from the situation…it looks like it's now or never, I'll give you a deal, you take off the stupid bracelet and let me roam free for a good half an hour or so and I'll put the bracelet back on"

"…and let you cause rampage on this island?"

"These guys aren't exactly the best gentlemen in the world you know, besides there's your friend Danny who's going to keep everything in check, looks like he's hoping for you too" Danny cast a side glance at his friend beside him, still with that flat calculating face.

"Fine! This is only because I have no choice alright!" Leo said and put her hands back to take off the bracelet, pretending to scratch his arms.

"Prepare to die!" everybody cocked their guns and Leo could see their fingers itching to pull the triggers, _this had better work! Wait, what's that sound?_

Leo turned his head toward some weird whooshing sound from the direction of the shore, and it's getting louder and louder and it sounded like it was coming toward them and looked like the Pirates realized that too.

"Cannons!" one guy shouted

Before anybody could make a move a cannonball had already found its way inside the house that they just came from through the glassless window and blew everything inside. Black smoke came out from the windows, whether Krieg survived the blast or not was a mystery but not for long as Leo heard a coughing sound from inside the burning house.

The door was kicked open and it flew off its hinges to reveal a blackened Krieg, eyes full of rage while more smokes were coming from the doorway. It looked like he took cover just in time judging from his unscathed condition. "Who…"

There were footsteps coming from one of the narrow alleys leading to the dock and one of his goons showed up and pointed toward the dock while informing them in between his gasps that the Marines have managed to surround the pier and already seized several of Krieg's armadas.

"How did we let that happen!"

"I don't know…several of the Marines infiltrated our ships and messed with our gun powders, we're left defenseless!"

"All right call every men and tell them to go to the shore now while you all go to your posts and you keep these gentlemen here and my money safe"

"What? You actually brought the money?" Danny suddenly spoke in the midst of the sudden rush of Krieg's goons' advance toward the shore

"Insurance, but now that I know you're a weakling, I feel like I don't need that" Krieg said while motioning some of his men to cuff the both of them as he figured out that they could be used as hostage or bargaining chip, 247 million beli Pirate, that'd make for a sensational news.

"One word of caution, If you can't even defeat a single Marine division like this then don't expect you can survive in Grand Line"

Minutes later after Krieg has presumably joined his goons in the shore the fights seemed to have ceased. Danny still acted like a helpless hostage in the corner while Leo was struggling to keep his sanity as his 'other self' tried to push through.

"Can't hold it…" Leo muttered

"What's that kid?"

"GHAAAHAHHHHH!" Leo stood up, trembling, hands balled up into fists.

"Shoot him!"

Without giving any second thought the guards assigned to secure them emptied their guns and rifles at Leo but then was taken completely by surprise when they saw Leo still standing healthy as ever, but not completely intact as there were now bullet holes all over his body. If one would look closely he'd see the white wall behind him through the bullet hole, but they didn't have enough mental capacity to even process what just happened. That a guy they assumed to be ordinary turned out to be not so ordinary after all.

In horror they watched as the cuffs started to dissolve even when Leo apparently did nothing, not even a single movement on his arm to warrant such result. Danny too seemed to be surprised, he knew Leo was a fruit user but he didn't know he was a logia.

"Wh…what are you?" one guy said while the others reloaded their guns in hurry and shot Leo again and again, refusing to believe what their eyes conveyed.

Without saying anything he raised his leg in an instant and kicked the unsuspecting guy in the guts, the already unconscious guy flew backward carrying with him the other goons who were unfortunate enough to be standing right behind him. While the others just stood there, they looked like they were about to piss their pants but ironically their shock prevented them from doing anything, even from doing that. Seconds later they were all taken care of. Deciding that the jig was up, Danny stood up and effortlessly broke the cuff with his brute strength. If Leo was still 'Leo' he would have been impressed by that but now as his own haki got overpowered by his fruit power, his influence over his body and mind got even weaker, and Leo felt 'his' own consciousness slipping away, being replaced by a more sinister one. It was just like the night in the forest with the doctor before.

"Good job Leo! I'd never have guessed you were a logia but that can wait, now we must find out where Krieg store his money" Danny scrambled into the bombed house while Leo only did so much as to give him a side glance before he ran for the shore to where the party was.


	11. Krieg's Wrath

_Damn! This is just isn't my day! _Krieg grumbled to himself. This was supposed to be a monumental day for the Krieg Pirate, now that the main material for his armada's main fleet has arrived it means they're a step closer to Grand Line. Sure he's got the route to Grand Line, but Krieg has always prided himself as the man with 'a thousand plans' who believes the old sailor's adage that states 'anything that can happen will happen' so there is not a single action of his done without it being meticulously planned first but that doesn't mean it won't cause disruption and delay in his plan for One Piece as he's come to realize that every actions he planned have their own consequences. He was willing to take those consequences just as long as he comes out as the winner in the end. And now it seemed somebody in the Marine head branch has forgotten about their part of the deal, fortunately he's planned for this too. He knew miscreants like them always need a constant reminder as to who's the boss here. He decided if this contingency plan played out as he's expected then that means he'd have to pay his old friend a visit.

Krieg descended the beach which by then was already littered with bloody casualties down to where the Marines were waiting for him, thinking foolishly that they'd had him this time. "What are you filth doing in MY island? Haven't I paid you enough money to you damn parasites?" he spoke in that hoarse voice of his, paying no heed to his captured crews who were tied and huddled together by the dozen right between him and the Marine company ready for slaughter.

"You either turn yourself in peacefully right now or you and the rest of your crew die here, it's your choice" the Marine Captain said as he adjusted his square rimmed glasses. _This guy must be new._

"I'm afraid you don't get to dictate your terms here Captain, you think this is all?" Krieg said as he looked behind him and waved his hand revealing what seemed to be hundreds of his goons emerging from the forest behind him. "You can't just barge into my 'property' and expect gifts Captain" the large guy looked down on the Marine company condescendingly.

"Can I just shoot the bastard right now Cap'n?" a purple haired woman with a peculiar haircut yelled behind the Captain. Other than her shaven hair and her smoking she seemed to be out of place standing there among the tanned and raggedy, all-male Marines.

"Not yet Lieutenant Commander Bellmere, not until we make sure that everyone in the village is safe just as we'd planned" the Captain said turning his head slightly, still sounding as confident as ever.

"A Marine girl with guts, I'll enjoy breaking your will" Krieg said sneering at the Captain's aide, the purple haired girl Bellmere just narrowed her eyes and pouted her lips as a response. If it wasn't for her respect for her Captain she'd have shot him dead right there and then.

"And you seem to have thought this 'raid' through, so what you got for me?"

"Your armadas and your crews and the safety of this island"

Krieg's eyes widened at that "My what?"

"We've seized 5 of your ships in Logue Town and Goa and now an additional 4 ships in here, it takes only one call to sink it to the bottom of the ocean"

"You filth are incapable of doing that, my armadas are the strongest in East Blue, don't ever think for even one second that you got a chance of even-"

"Call them yourself" the Captain interjected "you know your desire to increase your numbers have certain loopholes right, such as it's getting easier for us to slip some people in, here and there"

"So what do you say Pirate?"

Krieg smiled as he remembered about the guy he just caught earlier, good thing he'd kept that Danny guy alive "you might not want to do that Cap'n"

"What?"

"If it's promotion you're looking for, catching a small fish like me won't improve your chance, not that you got a chance capturing me anyway…"

"Impossible…"

"I captured a 200 million something Pirate for rainy day like this. You let me and my ships go and this guy is all yours"

"I want proof"

Krieg snickered, "His name's-"

"BANG! BANG!"

The beach suddenly became silent, even the confident smile on Krieg's face has gone instantly the second the two shots were heard. He looked down to check if he's been shot but sighed when it didn't hit him. He heard a groan from the Captain in front of him and dreaded what he was about to see.

There in front of him, the Captain stood clutching his chest, blood pouring out from his trembling mouth. Face contorted in a confused and bewildered manner as he went down. Before Krieg knew it shots were already fired, men falling and the Marines have already had their guns at the ready. _What the heck just happened!_

"YOU PIRATE BASTARD!" the purple haired woman bellowed as she took aim at the flabbergasted Pirate in front of her, but before she could fire off one shot Krieg's goons saved the day by providing covering fires from the retaliating Marines, Krieg took that as a cue for him to scram. Bellmere ducked as hundreds of bullets flew by her. Soon enough the Marines counterattacked by employing their ship's cannons and decimated the goons who were out killing their comrades at the beach. Krieg's goons quickly retreated back into the island, giving the Marines on the beach a little time to recuperate as they could hear some intermittent gunshots from within the island.

Bellmere, now acting as the Captain lead her men off the beach and onto the high ground, looking to clear some land for reinforcements. "BLOW THEIR SHIPS DAMMIT AND KILL ALL PRISONERS! THERE'S NO ESCAPE FOR THEM TODAY!" seconds later several huge explosions were heard from the dock as the bomb did their work and sunk Krieg's ships and the captured goons were swiftly executed by the Marines. "Inada bring your men and flank them from 2 o'clock, take that hill over there while Freddy you're now my lieutenant so you pick 50 men and go around the beach and try to secure the village from the back, the rest follow me and keep your f# n heads down!"

Five minutes later, back tight against a fallen tree trunk Bellmere cursed at herself, this was not at all like what they've planned. They hadn't thought Krieg would be this crazy. Her attempt to gain some ground and push into the woods have been futile. Krieg's men seemed to be prepared for this as they have dug out some protective fox holes and trenches and fixed them with some bazookas, cannons and Gatling guns. Some of those cannons have already struck the Marine ships and the news just came in from the head branch that they were alone. No more reinforcements, just the approximately 200 men from the other two ships now rowing their way into the island, avoiding cannons and rockets as they did so.

"Report Captain, Ensign Inada is down and with that Gatling gun holed up in there there's little chance of us taking that fortified hill!"

"Okay, you tell just 'em to hold their ground, let the cannons do their job. Any word from Freddy's?"

"No news yet, but we've sent some guys to back them up"

"Do we have some rockets with us?"

"Yes, Captain, they're coming here right now" Bellmere saw two men crawling toward her with two RPG's ready at her command. "Alright men! Keep a suppressing fire!" Bellmere commanded to the others.

"Are you ready?" both men nodded, a frightful look on their face.

"Take aim!" Bellmere yelled with the enemy's hostility intensifying as they realized the Marines' intention in spite of the Marines' suppressing fire.

"FIRE!"

Bellmere couldn't help but wince at the ensuing explosive sound of the rockets as they were being propelled out of their barrels into the hill.

With a boom, the top of the hill got decimated at last by one of the rockets causing some unintentional landslides which buried the foes holed up in the trenches and foxholes below. The Marine that was left at the foot of the hill finished off some of the leftovers and took over the vantage point and cleared the trenches below them. Bellmere and her men charged forward and occupied the holes dug out by Krieg's men. The cornered goons started to move deeper into the island, leaving their exposed posts as they failed to retake the hill.

Bellmere and her men swiftly cleared the trenches at the front and proceeded to go around the hill and into the outer part of the village. Just then she saw a big plume of black smoke from the direction of the village, she just hoped that Krieg wasn't as crazy as she thought he was or she'd get the blood of the whole innocent villagers on her hands. Just as she thought so the three Marines leading their way got blown off while the third flew off into the bush at the side, still alive but gravely injured. "Land mines!" she warned her subordinates behind her and motioned them to stop. After she ordered a medic to attend to the injured Marines Bellmere now lead the Marines company by tracking and following the tracks that Kriegs' goons had left in their haste while choosing to ignore her subordinates' protests.

As the Marines moved on from the front part of the island they realized that now the real fighting would begin. With the hill behind them preventing the Marine ships from accurately supporting them with cannon fires they have to fight alone without any advantage in this maze of a village, with narrow streets and thousands of hiding spots and snipers' nests, and the fire wasn't making it any easier either for the few surviving Marines. There was no sign of Freddy's men from the opposite side, all she could see was the big black smoke coming from the middle of the village inhibiting their sentries' visibility and it was spreading fast because of the wind. The villagers were running frantically out of their burning village, some were crying and some tried in vain to put out the fire. She ordered a few of his men to guard the villagers away while she arranged the men she got left into three groups and ordered them to infiltrate each side of the village, with her leading one of the groups.

The Marines then began to push into the village despite their foes' persistence, evacuating the villagers in their way. The RPGs were proven to be quite handy as they helped clearing the snipers on the rooftops and some guerillas hiding among the bushes. All that was left were those hiding beneath this jungle of clay-houses. Bellmere had earlier ordered some of his men to move onto the rooftops to search for Krieg but until now no such luck. But one thing for certain she was far outnumbered. "Where the hell is my reinforcement!"

"They are all being held back by a green man in the shore Cap'n, I don't know"

"What!?" Bellmere asked again, not believing that she'd heard it right. _Green men? Is this another one of Krieg's antics?_

"All I know is this is all we've got for now!" yelled the ensign who was right beside her. The arena was getting so loud she couldn't discern the hundreds of gunshots that blast off in every second all around her. _This has to stop before one of us got wiped out for sure…!_

"Report Cap'n! There's a ship docked at the far side of the island Cap'n! It was hidden by a cliff all this time" one of her snipers reported "Shit shit shit!" _Could it be Krieg's getaway?_

"Order one of our ships to get over there immediately and capture it!" her subordinate nodded and stalked away. She knew the risks of sending one of her ships into the enemy's territory but if her instinct was right, Krieg and the rest of his commanders would be there and she's vowed on the memory of her late Captain that this ends today.

The Marines continued to push forward, with other companies flanking both sides and winning over strategic positions but they were still met with strong resistance coupled with the throng of panicking villagers in the line of fire and the ever present smoke, Krieg's men seemed to be capitalizing on this advantage. If this kept on going Bellmere knew she wouldn't last long. Her men too were already worn out, with the reinforcement getting held by these noxious 'green men' and her current soldier already spread out thin, she wasn't sure she could hold her ground should Krieg's got himself some back-up group for long. The best she could do now was hold on to the ground that she and her men has gained in a stalemate until whatever it was blocking her reinforcement is taken care of but looking from how the things were going it looked like she'd has to deal with the green men herself.

On the other side of the village

"What did you say!? DID I HEAR IT RIGHT?"

Krieg back in his hideout deep in the village just found out that it's been breached and that a certain North Blue man had stolen his money. Enraged he held the only men who barely survived Danny's ambush by his neck, choking him but not too tight it'd cause instant death.

"He got it! He got the money" the man still squirmed in his hold, trying to get free

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU TO DO? ONE SIMPLE JOB AND THE WHOLE LOT OF YOU CAN'T EVEN DEFEAT ONE INSIGNIFICANT MAN!"

"He was invincible..!"

"USELESS IMBECILE!" Krieg threw the man across the room in frustration then paced around the room "I've gotta find that man right now!"

The door opened and Krieg looked up, it was his lieutenant "10 minutes" he warned. _Dammit! I underestimated those guys but it doesn't matter, I can rebuild my fleet but this 'incident' will surely boost my reputation! To hell with the money! With my reputation I could extort more money from other villages and rebuild again!_

"Alright we set sail now! Screw that money, let's go!" Krieg hurried outside, grabbing his fur jacket on the way.

Against what she'd predicted earlier, the assault toward the center of the village turns out to be quite a light one, there were only a few resistances here and there but the only thing that hinders their movement was the smoke that began to really mess with her eyes and lungs. But that was nothing for a ragged chiseled Marine soldier like her, she believed as long as her heart is still beating she'd chase the most heinous of Pirates even if she has to sail across the six seas. _This is too easy, could Krieg have escaped already? Then we need to hurry the hell up, but this could be a trap_

Then she saw a big man with a black briefcase emerging from the black fume ahead, from the clothes he didn;t seem to be from around here. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" the Marines commanded, rifles at the ready. Bellmere took in the man and his amber/yellowish eyes stood out from the rest, the eyes were full of terror, she didn't know whether that was because of the fact that 'his' village was going to be entirely burnt down or that he was a Pirate and now he was surrounded by the Marines.

The man's hands shot up in surrender, dropping his briefcase "I'm a villager! Oh my God this is so horrible! The ones you should be chasing are those heartless Pirates!" the man was a terrible actor, Bellmere and the rest of the Marines noted.

"Frisk him" Bellmere ordered

"What!? What did I do wrong" he spoke hysterically as two of her men approached him.

"Stay st…" suddenly a very bright and blinding light flashed in the sky ahead, everybody had their arm over their forehead only to witness an explosion with the shape of a giant mushroom bloomed like a bizarre flower before them. For the first few seconds the world seemed to have gone muted and static with everybody glued at where they were standing right now, their minds unable to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster that was unfolding before their eyes. In a blink of an eye the time turned to its normal pace and a surge of black cloud were already coming toward them in what seemed like an impossibly rapid velocity, decimating everything standing in their way from the speed alone. Even Danny, who more or less used to these kinds of things in Grand Line had only recovered his senses quickly enough to cover the mortified Captain standing immediately in front of him with his body and haki before the explosion caught up with them.

Meanwhile at the beach the explosion was not left unheard, despite the green abomination in front of them they knew the white flash of light and the blaring sound that followed was quite out of the ordinary, cannons don't make sounds like that, at least they knew that much.

_What the hell was that?_ Curiosity also got the better of Leo as he ignored his 'foes' and turned around to see a gigantic mushroom cloud in the sky beside the hill from the village. Not long after that he could see the palm trees and bushes in the forest in front of him shuddering as if there were really strong winds striking them, their lean trunks began to tilt toward the beach and their leaves dancing about wildly, rustling as the wind went by. Then a few of the smaller tree started to get ripped off from the land and flew toward them.

"THIS IS AWESOME!" Leo couldn't help his excitement at the destruction before him, not knowing that he'd share the same fate soon. "WOW!" he felt the wave colliding with his body and even his liquid body could do nothing as the shockwave lifted him off his feet and sent his body flying like all those trees toward the sea.

Danny opened his eyes as he felt the rain water pouring down on his face. It was already dark when Danny regained consciousness and he then found himself stuck in a tree half-naked and drenched from head to toe from the downpour. It wasn't that bad at all, he thought as he finished stretching his body, nothing broken, not even cuts and scrapes, only one dislocated joint and his back felt like hell as a result of shielding a certain Marine soldier. Years of haki training have enabled him to retain his haki reinforcement even when he lost his consciousness so he didn't have to actually worry about waking up and finding his own body a mess every time a villain decides to destroy an entire island but unfortunately not everybody had the same training as his, thought Danny as he searched around the village-turned-wasteland for his payment…and Leo of course so that they could get the hell out of this damned island but instead only found several bits and pieces of meat of the casualties. He knew the only thing he needs to worry right now regarding Leo with his devil fruit ability was the possibility that he got swept into the ocean, other than that being a logia he should be alright. _But if he's okay where the hell is he? Now with the land barren it shouldn't be that hard to notice a healthy 7' blond boy among this hell, except…_

Danny walked to the shore after no luck of finding his briefcase while hoping that the shore escaped the total destruction that had struck the inland village. But his hope quickly diminished as he noticed the uprooted trees on his way to the shore.

By the time he got there he found the beach full of wreckage from the blown up ships and the Marines' only surviving vessel has already set sail into the horizon, apparently in hurry as there were still the charred bodies of their comrades here and there strewn across the white sandy beach. "So much for camaraderie…" he muttered as he searched the shore for any sign of his 'associate'. Not more than minutes later his nightmare had come true, he found the blond boy washed up on the shore lying lifelessly face down among the lapping ripples of waves on the sand.

"Shit Leo" Danny rushed and kneeled beside the out cold Leo, he turned Leo's body around and checked for pulse and was a bit relieved when he felt a weak pulse in him.

He tilted Leo's head and after several precise pumps to the chest Leo regained consciousness, coughing the water out of his lungs as he did so. Danny quickly returned Leo's bracelet just for safety and helped Leo to sit up. He still didn't say any word, Danny could understand it if he was traumatized, this must have been one heck of a summer holiday for him and to be honest he, himself had not expected this. Sure he's had several deal-gone-bad experiences in his life as a businessman but few had actually prepared a freaking gigantic bomb to seal the deal. He should have beat up that Krieg bastard when he could…

"Wh…what the hell happened?" Leo finally spoke, his voice was still a bit shaken.

"Krieg, he was a maniac, he had a bomb…soo…yeah…he blew up the entire village…what about you?"

"I don't know…last thing I remembered was this massive gust blowing my body into the sea as if I was a feather and I couldn't do anything…then the next thing I knew I already ran out of air to breathe. That was actually the first time…that I felt so helpless in my life, the feeling was…I mean...when you have an ability…you just see darkness and feel the water surrounding you, pulling you down and you just float there until you can't hold it no more, you know…it was horrible" Danny didn't say anything as it was true and it was the one weakness that any ability users can never negate no matter how strong they are or how hard they trained. It truly is the ultimate fear and fate for most of ability users.

"I'm sorry…" Leo said, deciding that omitting certain nefarious details is best for now.

"Don't be"

The two men then just sat there at the beach not knowing what to do now, for all they know everything has taken a turn for the worst and they're stuck here in this Godforsaken island. Even Krieg's money seemed worthless now. So they were just going to sit there until something comes along and watch where that'll take them.

"Leo come 'ere, I found a boat!" Leo turned his head to see Danny came up from the storming sea, carrying a small 'boat' in one hand and sighed in relief. He was beginning to worry when Danny hasn't come up for air for several minutes already, he could have been stuck down there and drowned and there was nothing he could do about it. Now it looks like his effort wasn't such a waste after all.

"Boat? It doesn't look like it can float" _but_ _at least he's found something resembling it_

"Yeah but we can fix it, there are just a few cracks and holes that we need to cover and it'll float, trust me"

"Yeah but it doesn't look like the both of us can fit in that thing either, besides I'm too tired to row it all the way to Gylfen knows where!"

"Leo, it's what survival is all about! Do you think anybody will come here and rescue us? For all they know we could all be dead already!"

"Alright, alright you search for planks to cover those holes and I'll search for some fabric for the sail 'cause I'm not going to row that thing"

Leo walked into the woods to search for some woods before Danny stopped him "don't go there, it's nasty in there, I'll go look for things in there that can be useful while you stay here"

Leo just nodded while wondering just how 'nasty' could it be to make even a man like Danny to call it 'nasty'

Danny was back among the remains of the village after having no luck finding the tools to fix the boat he found in and around the shore. The fires have long been put out by the heavy rain that'd been pouring down on the island since he woke up so it left Danny with his makeshift torch as the sole light that guide him through the ruins and dead bodies on the devastated island. As he was foraging around he suddenly felt a couple of really weak haki hiding behind a destructed wall. It looks like they were waiting to jump him, "who's there?" Silence. Danny raised his torch so that it lit the ground around the edge of the wall "I know you're behind that wall, come on who's in there!" it's been a long day and Danny figured he didn't want to take any chances.

Slowly a shadow crept up from behind the wall, revealing the purple haired Captain who looks like she might fall off her feet and faint any second. She was bruising really badly on her temple and there were several ugly looking contusions on her forehead and several cuts and wounds here and there. Her face was pale and there were dark spots under her eyes. If she hadn't stood right there in front of him like that he'd have easily mistaken her for a corpse. She too seemed to remember him as he saw her eyes lighted up a little bit and then she whispered something before she, as he'd predicted earlier, fell unconscious.

To his surprise a kid holding a baby suddenly emerged and shook the Captain's body before he could do anything, the expression on their faces told Danny that this lady meant a lot to them. "Let me see" Danny placed his torch near the wall and he kneeled down to check on her condition before the kid came around and blocked him from the dying Captain. "Who are you? We saw you earlier talking with the Pirate!" the blue haired kid yelled, trying to sound brave but her face betrayed her as her eyes filled up with more fresh tears and lips trembling. "Do you see any doctor here?" but the kid stood her ground, while gently cradling the baby in her arms she yelled "NO! You're going to kill her!"

"Either way she's going to die anyway" Danny would have none of this BS and he passed the hesitating kid and reached out to check her temperature but a hand intercepted his before he could do touch her forehead. It was the Marine's, _so she's been conscious all this time?_

"If my children…said no…then you shouldn't…" **coughhh**" the Captain started to cough blood from her mouth. The kids suddenly spawned next to him and their crying began to annoy Danny. "See this?" Danny looked at the blue haired kid "Alright alright! Please sir, save her"

"Where the hell is he!?" It's been no less than two hours and Danny hasn't come back yet. So he has taken the liberty to also look for nails and other things needed to fix the 'boat'. Now that he's fitted a sail to the boat he began to think whether he should just leave the slacker here and enjoy these foods he gathered from the wreckage all by himself. But Leo wasn't that cruel and he knew Danny wasn't the lazy type, it must have been something important or…dangerous. He just prayed that it wasn't Krieg or his goons, he wasn't in the mood for another fighting.

When Leo at last found him he never expected to find him playing doctor on a very sickly looking woman with what seemed to be two children sleeping soundly beside her in a makeshift tent.

"She looks like she's dying" Danny looked up then went back to cleaning the area around the large gash of wound on the woman's left arm.

"She needs blood transfusion but we have no equipment for that, all I can do is stop her bleeding and just cover it, I don't think there's even a sewing equipment around here"

"So what can I do? I've gathered some foods from the ships' wreckage at the dock, you want me to bring them here?"

The next morning

"You sure you don't want to come with us?" asked Bellmere, now all fixed up but still with the pale complexion and bruises. Unbeknownst to her last night Danny had taken the liberty to share his haki to her and the children in order to hasten their recovery process. Not enough to make her jumping around so as to not raise suspicion but it was at least enough for her and the kids to withstand the sea for a few weeks.

"Nah, we still have some things to do here right Leo?"

"Yeeeaah we'll take the next boat, don't worry about us" Leo assured her

Last night after some lengthy talks the both of them had come into a conclusion that they'd have to let go of the boat if she were to survive. There was just no chance of her getting better here without adequate foods, water, medicine and other kind of treatments. Though by sailing the sea all by herself and 2 little kids the chances are still slim at least there's still hope. Besides, she was a local Marine, so she was bound to know nearby islands and towns, so it'd be much better for them to go while she still has the energy to do so instead of waiting for a hypothetical rescue, even if there was a rescue there'd be no guarantee that she'd still be alive by then what with the limited food.

She seemed to understand that they've made their decision and the only thing she could do was to respect their decision. "Very well…" she nodded as she bid the two men goodbye and hopped onto the boat.

"Bellmere…please take this with you" Leo turned his head expecting Danny to give her some flower or something, but nothing could have prepared him for it, it was Krieg's money! _So he did find it!_

"Wh…what's this?"

"You're going to need it if you're going to realize that dream of building that orange grove of yours and raise those two little rascals!" Danny said jokingly, eyes on the kids who were still sleeping onboard.

"…I don't deserve this" Bellmere tried to give the briefcase back to Danny but he'd have none of it

"Look it's not mine to begin with, I found it among the ruins last night and figured that you'd need it more than I do…" Bellmere knew he was lying, she remembered him holding the briefcase yesterday, just seconds before the explosion. _He is the worst liar ever_

She was still left unconvinced by his explanation but his insistence made her accept the money "I want you to know that I'll forever remember this debt, if only there's anything I could do…you've all done so much to me and I…" her voice shaking, her teary eyes betrayed her tomboy look and for once she didn't even try to conceal it.

Danny just smiled and took her hands "I might stop by and when that time comes, you better have some sweet juicy oranges for me" Bellmere smiled at that. "You can count on me" she said as cheerful as she could, to show him how grateful she really was.

"Alright then, you sure you know the way back to your hometown?"

"Cocoyashi Village, remember that!"

"Just be safe alright" Danny said with Leo helping him push the boat into the sea beyond.

"You too" she said softly, a hint of sadness in her voice, both men waved their goodbyes until the little boat carrying the three girls disappeared behind the wide and clear horizon.

"Soo…what now?" Danny looked back and saw Leo already lying back down on the warm sandy beach, if it wasn't for the Pirate, explosions and carnage they left behind, this island would have made the perfect tropical retreat.

"We wait" Danny said as he joined him, lying down on the fine white sand.

"Danny…"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you give them all your money?"

"You won't understand"

"It's their haki isn't it?" Leo asked after a long pause

"Yes, their haki…I don't know if you're going to understand it but it's like…they supported each other…I've never seen anything quite like it before, without that she'd have been long gone already along with the others"

"Their bonds must be really strong…"

"Yeah, even when they supposedly just met yesterday in the worst circumstances possible…" Danny sighed. "So I figured…why can't I do the same thing and just see how it'll play out…because Leo, things like that just don't happen every day"

"A miracle"

"Yes, Leo, a miracle"

**Alright folks that's the end of what I call as the 'Training arc'! We're not quite there yet but there's going to be a time skip after this one so just you wait!**


	12. Brothers

**Hey sorry for the delay guys, but here it is, the next arc!**

Leo glanced around the corridor making sure no one was around before quietly opening the massive door ahead of him. He poked his head inside the room and found that it was dark and deserted. It was hard not to miss the sheer size of, what he figured as the ballroom. Earlier Nessa had insisted that he come here, for what he didn't get a chance to ask. He sighed. This was supposed to be her party.

He was about to close the door and concluded that she was just messing with him before he saw a figure out of the corner of his eye. She was standing by the window, back facing him staring out into the night sky. The moonlight cascading through the windows casting foreboding shadows around the room. If it wasn't for her earring gleaming from the moonlight he'd have mistaken her as one of the shadows.

Leo silently entered the room and closed the door behind him. Now that he was inside the room he realized just how majestic it really was. It was bigger than the hall alone and it was embraced with rich textured white colored panel which was also adorned with beautifully carved molding and unlit wall-mounted candles, the clear marbled floor didn't escape Leo either. The domed room was circular, massive pillars supported the balcony that encircled the room, save for the side where it directly overlooked the panoramic view of the city, to make room for a classic but yet elegant chandelier that hung from the center of the lavishly decorated dome. The wall on the far side of the room was covered by tall windows that reached up to the second floor, now this was exactly what he'd imagined a castle would be like. He then stood beside her and savored the view for a few minutes.

"What are you doing here?"

Leo looked at Nessa, despite of everything that was going on right now she looked disturbingly sad.

"Remember 5 years ago when you showed me that colorful mountain back in that little village of yours?"

Leo sniffed and chuckled, it didn't take him long to recall that "you were crying like a baby that night"

"…I realized that night, that I do _not_ deserve this"

"Oh"

"I thought I could just shake it off, forget about it but it all keep coming back to me"

"…How can I be living happily, enjoying all the spoils the world could offer and start a family at the expense of my brother?" she turned to Leo, tears glittering in her eyes.

"Because that's exactly what he wanted Nessa, you don't want to repay his sacrifice like this, please Nessa just think for a second, you're going to get married tomorrow for Gylfen's sake"

"If I don't do this now I'll regret it my whole life, please…" she took his hands in hers, begging desperately.

"…take me away Leo, please" Leo looked at her best-friend's eyes and saw nothing but sadness in them, showing him a clear insight to the pent-up sorrows of her heart.

"I…" before he could finish, he knew she could already see the hesitation in his eyes and he cursed himself for it "…I can't Nessa, I'm sorry"

She released her hands, first it was her tears then her face began to disintegrate into fine sands and the rest of her beautiful dress followed and then nothing was left of her.

Leo slumped onto the floor, his glazing eyes staring out into space "I'm sorry Nessa, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, please…please forgive me…"

Then everything went black

* * *

Leo woke up with a start, the darkness and the stench told Leo that he was back. He was relieved that everything was back to normal again.

It's been thirteen years, thirteen years in the darkness, thirteen years without seeing a sliver of light, a sliver of hope, thirteen years of guilt haunting him every night and was doomed to relive it as long as he live.

Despite his future, he was doing well, yes, he kept telling himself that. Without him around his homeland would be safe, with him locked up here everybody could feel safe at night when they go to bed. He just had to keep believing it or the mental solitude that he's been building inside for all these years would crumble unleashing the unwanted feeling that would undoubtedly drive him mad. Those early days when he was covered in cold sweats, surrounded by these goddamn monsters, waiting for one of them to strike, he told himself they were far, far beneath him, back then he'd always try any way and ideas to get out of here but soon he realized it was hopeless, he swallowed his isolation with resignation. This was his punishment. He wanted to believe that this was for the better for everybody, he wanted to believe that this was his destiny but it's a lie, he knew it, he just couldn't let these monsters get their rewards just yet.

Here, he lay low, mostly. He got into fights sometimes, mostly with fellow cellmate who was promised a few 'breaks' or even 'promotion' to take his head, but now most of them knew better to not mess with him.

People here don't usually like to talk, and those who do just get hammered within minutes, it was one of the most basic rule here. You don't make friends. Only loneliness is your friend like it or not. It's pretty easy to understand, in this lowest level of Impel Down the closest thing to a saint this place's got is a lunatic man who's ethnically cleansed dozens of kinds of people. Trust is a joke here. So here he was mostly a background character; nobody asked him about himself for they already knew who he was and what he did.

Leo took a deep breath of the usual stank prison air and exhaled. It's a shitty existence, to be honest, being locked up in the lowest place on earth, among the worst of the worst for eternity. When he first came in, he didn't think of the crushing vacancy that would haunt him as long as he was here nor would he ever think that he'd be sitting in this rathole fiercely wishing he had someone here with him, an old friend so to speak, the only one capable of extinguishing this flame within him which he knew he'd kept burning for far too long it threatened to burn his own mental fortress. It was months ago, he just so nonchalantly showed up here with that smug charismatic look of his, his face took on an indifferent facade that he still remembered from years ago. Just when he thought he'd give up and give in to the pressure…Of course, how could he forget the person who's earned him this predicament? For first in decades he smiled. Taking revenge would be too sweet now.

It was just another day in hell. He was lying on the floor as usual listening to peoples' screams as the 'CO' which consists of several grimly looking mutant animals with their mace making their daily round of 'torture sessions' around the floor, barely wincing as he heard one poor guy's bone cracking, it was the closest to a regular entertainment one could get in the depth of the jail. But even after years of rotting in this goddamned cell he still couldn't quite get used to it, it still damn hurts when they hit him he wondered why? He now could see better in the darkness, he could sense peoples' haki as they were about to jump him in his sleep but why does it still hurt when they hit him?

A mechanical sound at the direction of the elevator signaled that the vice warden was coming. He just ignored it as usual, assuming it was just another 'fish'. The thudding sound as the elevator hit the bottom was not what caught his attention however, it was quick, the sound hitting a sensitive spot in his eardrums. It was the sound of something that high heeled footwear would produce. This might turn out to be a not so ordinary visit after all.

He turned toward the elevator door and found his eyes weren't focusing very well as a result of being in the darkness for so long. He had to blink and squint against the bright elevator light. There was a woman by the elevator being escorted along the corridor by the Warden himself, toward his cell, a frail little thing with long dark hair and pretty dark eyes. She definitely looked out of place here and he could imagine how the bastards here would react seeing a rare thing like her unexpectedly walking down their cell flaunting her womanly curves.

Aside from the woman, Magellan and Hannibal there was a ragged looking Marine officer. His haki reminded him of the officer who caught him years ago though he didn't wear a Mohawk.

Soon enough, just as expected the whole floor roared with delight, the noise was even louder than the occasional brawl among cellmates. It showed just how long these people have really been cast out from the rest of the world and they probably couldn't help it, the woman was quite a looker and well-endowed too but she also gave off that snobbish aura typical for a person of her caliber. The whole convoy stopped in front of the new guy's cell and Leo foolishly thought that she was Fire Fist's girl. That was before Vice Warden Hannibal declared so extravagantly that she was the 'Pirate Empress Boa Hancock herself'. Of course to him that didn't ring any bell but to these veteran pirates and criminals, who have probably dwelled all their lives in and around Grand Line, they might have fought her once or twice. _Shame really a woman that pretty has to be a Pirate of all things, and if she is a Pirate why don't the Marine catch her already? Isn't that supposed to be their job?_

Leo could barely hear the conversation that the 'Empress pirate' and Fire Fist were having with the foul whistling, shouting and yelling around him but at least he could make out something about a 'battle'. He figured that it must be the Whitebeard-Marines 'major battle' that people kept going on about. How it's made their blood 'start racing'. _It's getting tedious_, he thought. Despite everything that'd happened to him Leo was still a simple village boy at heart, sea, piracy, and battles held no interest for him.

* * *

Minutes later he was woken up from his nap by a loud ruckus coming from the Fire Fist's cell and he saw curious looking fellows standing by Fire Fist's cell, apparently distraught that they didn't find what they were looking for there. On second look he could see that they were a bloody mess, _they couldn't just barge their way into this hell could they? Nobody's that stupid_. The fishman, Jimbe, was it? told the goons that Fire Fist had been carried away for his execution and that they were late by a mere minute. They ran for the elevator but of course it wouldn't budge then they ran for the stairs but the gaolers closed it down too. _Of course, what did you expect?_ Leo just hoped that they didn't do anything stupid that would push the gaolers into doing something drastic.

As if reading his thought, soon white smoke started to enter from beyond the closed down stairs. Leo tried to remain awake by closing his nose with his shirt but he knew it'd only buy him a few more minutes. Fortunately one of the maniacs had just the right devil fruit to overcome it so that Leo could still watch this much needed action and drama for a little bit longer because he knew how this was going to end as is all other previous jailbreak attempts.

"You're all doomed!" shouted one of the inmates and he couldn't have summed it up better.

Leo continued to watch with keen interest as the goons, now trapped like they all were, argued among themselves and the topic about 'the great Whitebeard' and 'greatest battle the world has about to see' came into play in the heated argument. Leo realized that these guys were crazier than he thought they were. _They are talking about trashing the Marine HQ, oblivious to the fact that they are trapped like rats in here and it doesn't matter if this guy Whitebeard is going to start a war with the Marines because they won't see the sunlight ever again, Period._

Suddenly an all too familiar voice interrupted the goons, Leo's blood started to boil at the sound of it. It was that sandman bastard, he was manipulating the goons into setting him free. The strawhat guy seemed to know the guy and was quite adamant on not letting him out of his cage. Of course they shouldn't do it, of all people they shouldn't trust level 6's inmates for anything especially that guy. Knowing him, Leo had wanted to convince them to not trust that guy but then a realization came into his mind. He's been yearning to kill that guy since he was brought here, as long as they were both kept locked up in here under the supervision of Magellan he has no chance of ever touching him, he thought that as long as he suffer the same fate as him he'd avenged her death, but now he realized that it still wasn't enough, he needed to take care of _everybody_ responsible for ruining his life. So, that means he must be rid of this prison first, but then that means so should he. But he didn't want to bear witness to the 'greatest battle the world has about to see'. That is if he survived the escape. Did he have a chance of ever seeing the sunlight at all?

Before he knew it, the sandman was already out of his cell then the fishman convinced them to let him out too. Leo cursed at himself. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't let his target escape but this was all too fast, he wasn't sure if he could take them all on in here on his own, besides _what about Magellan? Where the hell is he?_ _Surely he'd easily capture them!_ _But it's now or never…_

"HEY! Get me out of here too!" Leo shouted

"IF you're lettin' him out, then lemme out too!" other inmate shouted

"yea' me too, me too!" others followed suit

"Don't be selfish, we wanna take Whitebeard's head too!"

"Stupid okama!"

_These guys are ruining it!_

"I'd be in your debt as well!"

"DEATH WINK!"

"Ugh!"

Before he knew what had struck him his body was already sent flying into the back of the cell.

"Kuhahahaha, you're still alive I see…please don't bother, they won't let a worthless trash like you out", Leo looked up to see the sandman standing there with that smug ugly face looking down on him from the other side of the bar.

Leo quickly got up, scrambled towards the guy and slithered his hands through the cell holes and grabbed the guy by the collar "I'M GONNA GET YOU YOU HEAR ME!? YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY COUNTRY!"

The Croc smiled his sly smile "…and what country would that be I forgot"

"…"

"YOUUU!"

"Kuhahaha…kuhahahaha" Crocodile continued laughing even when he started to dissolve into sand to let go of Leo's vise grip.

"GET BACK HERE GODAMMIT!" Leo punched the wall beside him as he watched his archenemy walked away to his freedom, still laughing his disgusting laugh. The temptation to break out of the godforsaken cell has never been greater for Leo.

* * *

_What the hell!?_

Leo woke up as he felt cold water splashed upon his face. Even before he opened his eyes, he knew something was terribly wrong. Never, in all the years that he sat rotting here did he ever see the place get flooded like this, even when the pipe ruptured because of Magellan's ceaseless diarrhea.

Then suddenly he remembered the chain of events that had knocked him out cold on the cold floor of his cell. It was the big fat guy and his no good comrades, the latest addition to today's jailbreak drama.

_**flashback**_

"_Greetings to all you sorry prisoners!"_

"_Sad creatures that are doomed to live out the rest of your days in those nasty miserable cages, I'm giving you the chance of being a free man again!"_

"_All that awaits you here is death! So how about this, stay in those cages for a moment and fight one another to death!"_

"_Then once you're all done, I'll bring you out to the outside world with me as my comrades!" _

"_We'll take over the world from the corrupt, the bigots! The oppressors who for generations have kept you down here with myths of opportunity and we give it back to you, the people!"_

"_The world is yours, none shall interfere ... do as you please! Spoils will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed as they learn to serve the true justice!"_

_**flashback ends**_

The fights had been quick, but his was exceptionally longer. With both of his hands bound by seastone cuffs he couldn't optimally land critical blows on his opponent let alone using his devil fruit power which would have come in handy then. He was already exhausted and injured by the time he took down the last guy, or so he thought. Turned out one of the guys who he thought he'd taken care of earlier was playing possum and had been waiting for him to finish the rest and exhaust himself before he decided to show himself. It was an elaborate technique of haki cloaking that Leo had yet to master so he had no way of detecting it. Leo went down on the third blow as his foe managed to strike his haki point in a swift combo. He'd have been fascinated by his technique if he wasn't too exhausted already.

He got back to his feet only to find his cell was quickly being flooded by the said water. He was even more surprised to see the door to his cell was left opened. Leo guessed his foe felt like he owed it to him. Still not quite sure as to what had caused the flooding, though he already had some ideas in his mind, Leo walked out of his cell at last, while staying alert for every possible attack. Even though he finally got what he'd been wishing for Leo was still far from being relieved for he knew this was going to be a long day for him. The whole place was awfully quiet save for the loud intermittent thumping sound from ahead. _Where the hell did everybody go?_

What he saw in front of his stopped him dead in his tracks. He just couldn't believe his own eyes. There it was the largest, biggest giant he'd ever seen smashing and kicking the wall, the only thing that kept the entire jail from being flooded by the seawater, trying to break it to pieces and seeing from the crack that he's created it was only a matter of time before he succeeds.

"Wh…what the HELL are you doing!?" the giant seemed to be surprised to see him but he continued his activity anyway.

"Oh…I'm just trying to break out of here, you see…I'm too big to fit inside the elevator teehee"

"You're going to flood the whole building you fool!"

"Uh oh…don't worry I'm going to make it as little as possible promise"

Leo saw the crack that he'd created bare handedly, from which the seawater was gushing into the building in large quantity. The 'little' crack was already twice his own height and the weight of the whole sea would be on him if he didn't get the hell out of here immediately.

"You're crazy, I'm getting out of here!" Leo, not bothering with the lunatic giant anymore and without thinking straight ran towards the stairs leading to the fifth level. All he knew was that the giant was serious when he said he was going to 'break out of here', and him being a human and not a fishman nor a colossal giant and add to the fact that he was also a fruit user left him no choice but to go someplace above the sea level.

On his way up he encountered several gaolers. Of course he could overcome them easily enough though he found the ones with shotguns troublesome. He knew that not even his haki could protect him from bullets so he had to be more careful about sharpshooters and the occasional ninjas, although that wouldn't matter once he could use his fruit ability and fortunately he knew just the person to get rid of these seastone cuffs.

He reached the archway leading to level 5 ahead but out of nowhere a whip entangled itself around his left leg and before he could respond he was already being spun and thrown inside the freezing hell. If Leo had felt a bit lethargic earlier, it was now gone as he felt the freezing snow directly shoved on his face. Leo looked back and found a woman with a rather vulgar vinyl crimson costume appearing from the shadows.

"mmmm~~! Not so fast level six!"

Leo didn't bother, he tried to get up first but found that the whip was still entangled around his leg. _This was no ordinary…_before he could finish the thought however, his bottom was already sent back onto the ground with a flick of her hand. "Who the hell are you?!"

"I'm Sadi-chan mmmm~~~! Torture is my passion" she said as her hand on the other end danced along the length of the handle of the makeshift whip preparing for the best way to service Leo into oblivion.

**So any of you noticed some very recent movie quotes somewhere along this chapter?**


	13. How to Trash Impel Down

Impel Down lvl 5

"mmmm~~! What's the matter level 6!" a minute into the escape and Leo already had his hope snatched away from him by this witch.

_My haki, it's gone haywire _

Leo had been trying to get his leg free of the whip but the electric surge kept him from even thinking about it and now somehow this whip had managed to mess with his haki body. What he didn't know was that the electricity didn't only shock his physical body but it also disrupts the flow of his haki due to the electric shock sustained by his vital points. To make matters worse the shock followed by the constant bashing had worsened a barely healed injury he'd sustained earlier in the level 6 battle royale. This was not what he'd expected when he broke out of his cell earlier. Now he truly believed that he was totally and royally screwed.

"Surrender now convict or I'll increase the voltage!"

"NEVER!" Leo yelled figuring that the chance of escaping from this hellhole didn't come by very often, so he had to defeat this witch no matter what. He wasn't going back to his cell watching his life goes by day by day until he finally loses it, not as long as there's still hope.

"mmmm~~! I was hoping you'd say that. I assure you the pleasure is all mine mmmm~~" the woman said in her typical exaggerated manner.

"AARRGGHH!" Leo squirmed and jerked as another wave of high-voltage surge struck him, weakening him his body even more.

"moooree ohhh scream some moore!" the woman ran one of her hands through her fiery red hair as she released another surge, bigger this time.

Leo didn't know what to do now, this was too much for him. Every time he tried to get free or move his cuffed arms in an attempt to spin the thing out of his leg the surge always got to him first. He wondered if this was the end of the road for him.

"OOHHH I'M ALMOST THERE!" Leo could see the woman's body started to shudder and that her finger pushed the buttons repeatedly and frantically. He couldn't believe that there could be sick people like this woman who get off on frying people.

"Mangetsu daikon kiri!"

Leo expecting the surge to strike his body in a blink of an eye had already closed his eyes and grimaced, resigning to his fate. But he peeked out one of his eyes a few seconds later when he didn't feel the dreaded electrical surge. He didn't know what has gone wrong as the whip was still entangled around his leg. _Was the surge so large it has completely fried my nervous system?_

"I WAS NEARLY THERE!" the redheaded woman shrilled while Leo looked and at last saw what'd caused it. The whip, it'd been chopped in half. Despite of that she appeared to be more pissed at having her climax of her lifetime robbed off of her like that.

"WHAT'D YOU DO!?"

"How the hell should I know!?"

"YOU'LL PA…" the woman suddenly slumped onto the floor unconscious. Behind her was a fellow convict, the only guy that he could trust in this godforsaken place and the one that was going to get him out of here. Leo smiled.

"Long time no see Hayato" Leo said as the guy, Hayato, gave Leo his hand for him to get back on his feet.

"Nice to see you"

The guy, Hayato Munakata was a level 5 swordsman from a country in New World whom he'd met when they were being transported to Impel Down thirteen years ago. And during that quick trip, the guy has made an impression on Leo and he decided that if he was ever going to get out of this place, he'd need his skill.

"Where were you!? I thought you'd gone off with that okama"

"I went looking for this" he showed Leo his sword or katana whatever these people call it.

Leo groaned "Do you really have to make me as your bait just so you can go searching for your sword?"

"Leo" he said, his face looked serious, Leo realized that he'd said the wrong stuff. "This katana is different".

Leo took a look at it and saw that the sword had a complex but beautifully carved, sweeping hilts designed to protect the hand wielding the sword. But what stood out from the rest was the weird black ball-shaped pommel that looked like it might have other function than just being simply a counterweight to the blade. Now that he looked at it closely the blade itself has a quite distinct shade compared to other blade he's seen. Somehow it reminded him to the color of the sky and cloud blended together.

"Watch" Hayato suddenly pulled the sword and swung the sword towards a wall and at first he thought the sword wasn't going to reach it let alone slash it but then to his surprise, the blade suddenly distended itself like a whip and sliced the thick prison wall in half like it was a proper metal sword. Leo looked at the sword in his friend's hand eager to know what the trick was, only to found out that there was no trick. There was no machine, or magical enchantments or anything that could have explained the whip-like nature of the blade_. Perhaps there really is something inside that pommel_

"I named her 'kami no ken'" (God's sword) he explained while Leo was still too busy figuring the sword out to listen to what the guy was saying.

"They make this stuff in your hometown?"

Hayato looked down at his funky sword "No, I saw it falling from the sky one day and I swam against the current, fought several sea monsters and dove to the depth of the sea for half an hour to earn this"

Leo nodded, he wished he could do all those stuff though it still didn't make any sense to him and he was certain that his friend was keeping some secrets about the sword but he had other thing to worry right now.

"So are we going to get out of here or what?"

With the blade back to normal, Hayato sheathed the sword "follow me"

"Hey hey, my cuffs!" Leo yelled, he'd completely forgotten about the cuffs.

The swordsman looked back and saw that his fruit user friend was still cuffed. _People with their abilities…_the swordsman thought. He always thought fruit users are a bunch of arrogant people who are too confident of their fruit abilities. They think their ability alone will get them somewhere in the sea but more often than not it backfired on them. Weak or not, there was no way of having a fair fight against fruit users and he hates unfair fights. But with Leo, he was different, his haki was evidently more developed and prominent than his fruit ability. Hayato was sure he'd only use his power when he had no other choice.

Hayato then plucked a hair out and used it to open the lock to Leo's cuffs. It was the same trick that he'd done in front of him years ago, that'd certainly impressed Leo.

"You've got to teach me this as soon as we reach the other side"

Hayato just nodded "now quick, we don't have much time"

"Let's go, I just can't wait to see the sunlight again" both men started running towards the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

"Why are you so sure?" Hayato asked with that accent of his (Japanese accent)

"With so much chaos happening around here the only one that we must anticipate is-"

"Magellan"

"That's righ…"

BOOOMMM

A loud sound followed by some sort of splashing noise came from beneath their feet and to Leo, judging from the continuous noise, the lunatic giant has finally done it.

"And that too"

"What the hell happened in here?" the journey upstairs had been swift for both men until they realized that the way up to the second floor has been somehow 'cut' like a piece of paper. "This is really weird man"

"Looks like a fruit user's doing"

"You know where the elevator is?"

"I do, but I can't guarantee that Magellan hasn't already put it out of commission…you're a logia, why don't you fly?"

"I can do that?"

Hayato realized that his pal's knowledge about his own devil fruit ability was fewer than he originally had thought. "Just follow me"

"You know, it really amazes me that you still remember these things even when you've been locked up in level 5 for decades"

"There's just not that many things to remember when you're locked up in here"

"That's true, I guess"

"Look at all these poisons…do you think we can fight it?"

"With haki we can…" he looked at Hayato "…we can right?"

"I don't know, in logia fights, haki doesn't neutralize their logia powers but it let us to touch their physical body. So even though we can land a blow or two at Magellan, there's always risks of us touching his hydras and his other poisons"

"He's a logia?"

"I'm not sure but he looks like one"

The pair was now roaming around the ground floor thanks to the elevator and just as Leo was about to turn into the main corridor that'd lead them to the main gate and freedom Hayato stopped him dead in his tracks and told him to be quiet.

"What is it?" freedom was already within his reach, he just couldn't be bothered with anything else right now and without waiting for a reply Leo peeked through the cells and saw the fat man and his new crews. The chief warden was lying on the floor, with one of the fat man's feet standing on his chest.

"Zehahahaha just as I thought, you're nothing without your useless power! Look at him, the CHIEF!" the fat man scoffed as the rest of his crews laughed.

"You sh…shall not escape form my prison **cough**" it was an unbelievable sight, seeing the chief warden, the guy Leo thought was unbeatable and strong as hell could be beaten to a pulp like this by the fat guy…no, he obviously had his guys ganging up on him, there was just no way could he take Magellan on all by himself. Except for the sickly looking fellow who rode on his horse, the rest of the crews seemed to be formidable.

"Just watch me zehahahahaha!" the fat guy stepped off the defeated warden and motioned his crews to follow him outside. Leo thanked them silently for taking care of Magellan. Leo just couldn't believe the escape would be this easy, with almost every gaolers and guards already defeated without them having to do anything. Except for the lunatic woman-in-red downstairs, this escape has been nothing but a walk in the park.

With the Pirates gone and Magellan too spent to stop the two of them, they ran outside where the sun shines. Leo couldn't remember a time when he smiled this wide, at last they've done it, they've become free men again. Leo looked up at the sky and never thought that he'd get the chance to see it again, to bask in the sunlight, to hear the seagulls' gentle call and to breathe the fresh air, it was wonderful to be free again.

"Uhm…Leo…I hate to break this to you but there doesn't seem to be any ship around…" Hayato said and it only required that one sentence, that one magic sentence to crush all of that. Magellan he'd take him on, the Marines, the Pirates, convicts or any other kind of monsters the world could throw at him he'd fight them just to get himself and his friends a shot at freedom but for this, for once he didn't know how to get out of this situation.

"Wh…no no no no, we've come this far!" Leo ran around the big pier, looked under it, looked for any sign of vessel on the misty horizon but nothing could be seen except for the gate of justice which was closing on them. The pirates, with whatever tricks they've got up their sleeves have somehow managed to open and pass it before it closes down.

"This is cruel…" both men stood on the very edge of the pier, the farthest point from Impel Down that they could possibly reach, both men staring longingly at the horizon, the sea, and the blue sky knowing that this might be the last time they could see them.

"Hold your hands up" the pair looked back to see a whole legion of gaolers, the crimson woman and her band of mutant animals, Hannybal, and Magellan already standing behind them.

"Leander R. Rendish, former lieutenant of the Revolutionary Army from Thule Kingdom, North Blue"

"Hayato Munakata, condemned ronin of Wano Country, New World"

"Your escape ends here"

The escape attempt has ended before they even realized it…this was the closest to freedom that they were ever going to get

Both men put their hands up and turned towards the gate of the great prison once more, turning their back on the freedom that they so desired and embracing their inevitable fate.

_We're so close…but again…it is the sea that has to separate us…just wait for me a little bit longer won't you Nessa…_


	14. Bentham

**Sorry guys for the long delay, just got a slight problem with my final and had to do something about it. Yeah, so here it is! the Eleventh chapter!**

**Note: There are certain references here especially at the start, let's see if you pick it up, I'm not going to spoil it**

Pearly gray light were creeping its way over from the horizon of nighttime New World. A lone man sat on a beach, the ray, tiny wisps of tendril, would reach out to him sometimes but he wasn't slightly bothered by it. His eyes were fixed on the 3D holographic display before him, the said picture was directly projected from the eyes of a small and pyramid-shelled den den mushi. As he sat there watching the calamity that was the Battle of the Marineford he found himself being washed over by a sense of déjà vu. Just like years ago nothing he could do can stop it from ever happening.

A series of bubbles effervesced from the dark depth of the sea beyond him and yet again the man paid no heed to it. It started from beyond the shoreline and it bubbled ashore, a silhouette of something neither quite human nor fish-like materialized from below. Fishes and sea monsters alike swam away from it, somehow sensing the malevolent nature of the creature. With slow deliberate strides, her head broke the surface of the still water revealing her angelic face, framed by long ginger hair which was all wet and slicked back right down to her shoulder blade. Everything about her seemed to deny the grimly tales that's been haunting sailors for generations. She was carrying something on her shoulder, something massive, and yet she carried it with the ease of a bag.

With the thing still in tow she strolled down the beach

"A fresh giant blue-finned tuna just as ordered" the woman said as he dropped the weigh off her shoulder.

"Thanks, Mira" the man looked up at the woman briefly

"How's it going?" the woman looked at the screen. There were explosions, yells and splatters of blood on the other side of the screen. The image was very vivid a normal person would have switched the thing off immediately but not them.

"You already know how it's gonna end" said the man as he took a bite of his snack which consists of several pieces of celeries.

"Curious...just a few hours ago you were face to face to him, trying with all your might to steer him away from this supposed inevitable end. I suppose you didn't know then this was one of those fixed point in time thing?" his assistant asked sarcastically, she knew he knows.

He sighed "If only he'd known…if only he'd understood what kind of disaster that would follow soon after his passing…with the whole Blackbeard thing! Just thinking about it makes my head ache" another instant flash of lights and extraordinary loud explosions erupted in the screen, the flashes reflected on their faces.

"For someone titled as 'the beasts' you sure care a whole lot about your foes"

"Please Mira, they're barely my 'foes' and you know me, I'm not a beast"

She rolled her eyes "Well I can think of a few times when…" but she stopped when he sent a glare at her that obviously meant that he wants none of it "Whatever, but please remind me again who's saved you countless of times when you get yourself into trouble when you didn't get the time straight!"

"Oi, are we gonna watch this or what?"

His assistant just made a face before she continued watching, her face uninterested, the guy though was looking around as if something was missing.

"Why am I not smelling any fried fish? Uhm…Where's Mori?"

The assistant sighed "you sent him away remember? Impel Down?"

"Ah yes!" he suddenly sat upright and clapped his hands "we must make sure that he gets out of that entrapment today, can't wait to meet him"

"I thought you said you weren't going to interfere"

"Not this" he said firmly, while offering no explanation to his confused assistant as to the reason why

"What's so important about that guy anyway?"

The guy abruptly stood up from his seat and turned towards his assistant, his face excited as he squeezed her arms "He's everything!"

"Oh yeah that timey wimey stuff right? How interesting!" the assistant exclaimed as she walked towards the sea

"Wanna go for a quick swim?"

"Hahaha. Funny." The guy said though his face showed quite the opposite expression.

* * *

Impel Down, Main Pier

It truly was the gloomiest and darkest building Leo had ever seen

There he stood on the very edge of the prison, hands up in the air, heads staring upwards at the enormous building. The high wall and gate seemed to rear over him like a threatening monster. Over the minutes the sky has become dull grey while the top of the fortress now barely visible through the looming cloud, signaling an oncoming storm, it's as if the sky itself was part of the prison. Underneath all that was the ruler of this prison. Magellan. Now he was without a doubt a logia, only logia could heal its body instantly like that which means that his chance of ever breaking out of this prison if caught again even slimmer.

"No…"

Just seconds after he'd raised his hands, Leo has decided that he'd just need to take his chances. He's promised himself that he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life in this prison. No, he wasn't going back on his promise now. Chances are he'd not see the sun again but if that means he'd reunite with her on the other side then let it be. Besides knowing the things they've done, he knew death would be a luxury once they let themselves get caught again.

"No, this isn't right" Leo put his both of his hands down

Hayato looked at his friend, surprised that the guy has got enough guts to do this. Leo looked at his friend, Hayato knew what his friend was expecting but this was a foolish move so he kept his sword sheathed which sparked a hint of disappointment on his friend's eyes.

"Leo, this is suicide!" Hayato whispered

"No, going back there is suicide!"

"I know how badly you want to see her again but please think about her, what would she say?"

"She's got nothing to say because she's dead, and now I'm going to do what I should have done from the start" Leo's body started to turn green and liquid but before he could fully transform Hayato jumped on top of him.

"Do you think I don't sleep at night without thinking that I should just end it right then and there too?"

"You don't know just how much I wish I was there at the court dying with the rest of my comrades, but I DIDN'T, I COULDN'T! I was given a second chance, a chance to go back and make it right, those that the dead could never do" Hayato said, his voice trembling. Leo just looked at his eyes and they acted like a window to him, he could see all his sorrow and what he's gone through, it was incredible knowing that it came from a man he thought was bred to serve and kill, still dumbfounded but he now finally understood that he wasn't alone in this and that this wasn't the time yet.

"So if you're gonna kill yourself then do it right! As a samurai, I do not fear death, but it is a foolish and selfish thing to do to GIVE UP!"

"You attack him now, you'll die but if we wait, surely there'll be a way, I give you my word"

* * *

Back inside the prison

"So…umm..i'm just going to interrogate them for a while, you don't need to guard me" there were several protests heard from outside the interrogation room "no i got this" replied Magellan. Against his subordinates' wishes, Magellan brought the two recaptured fugitives into a corner room, still on the ground floor. The job could usually be handled by Hannybal but this time Magellan wanted to keep this close to his chest, so he instead sent Hannyball and the rest of the guards to fix the comm room so that they could immediately report the situation to the HQ. Aside from the loss of communication the damage to the rest of the prison has been substantial, there was nothing much they could do for everything below the fourth floor has already been flooded and submerged by the time they could close the emergency water gate to keep the water from flooding more of the crippled prison. He couldn't even begin to imagine the number of men that he'd lost down there. But he got to remember who he was and do what he had to do, he can't be distracted at times like this by the emotions of his imitation. A second of hesitation would cost him his life.

The huge door was closed behind him as he entered the makeshift interrogation room, his demonic face more serious than ever. The recently captured men stayed silent, not completely sure what Magellan was going to do with them but that didn't mean they haven't had some ideas.

Magellan smirked as he closed the door behind him, apparently enjoying the sight. He pulled up a chair and sat down across from them. "How are you feeling?"

"Just get it over with Magellan"

"That's good" he said as he touched his arm then suddenly the figure that was once bear the exact image of Magellan changed into that of a completely different man "because honestly, we don't have much time"

Leo didn't know that Magellan's ability entails mimicking. But it apparently was. He didn't realize that his mouth was already agape in shock.

The man smiled "no, I'm not him, my name is Bentham and I'm a prisoner just like you, and I'm sorry that our introduction couldn't be any more glamorous but I have to get you out of here fast"

"WHO?...WHAT?"

"There's no time darling, I need you to listen to me very carefully"

"What did you just call me!?"

Bentham rolled his eyes "There's a small boat Magellan uses to entertain visitor around the prison, you are to use them to escape from here, all you need to do is follow me"

"H-How did you know that!"

"I can replicate his memories too, now let's go"

The corridor was deserted thanks to his command. "Why are you helping us?"

"I need you to deliver a message to my friend"

"Why don't you do it yourself!"

"We're close now, that's it, just turn over there" Bentham pointed, evidently trying to divert the topic and Leo was just too full of adrenaline to notice while Hayato just kept silent as usual, staying true to his samurai persona. He saw this guy fighting the crazy wolves of the 5th floor before, he could see his determination and more importantly his affiliation, he wasn't lying, anything other than that was irrelevant.

As Hayato turned around the corner his head bumped Leo's back. It didn't take him long to see what the problem was. Though there was nothing that could have prepared them for this. There he was standing between him and freedom, the real Magellan, looking really pissed despite the wounds. Now Leo was absolutely sure this was the real thing. There wasn't going to be any trick this time. The shock, it felt like someone has punched him in the stomach. It looked like he had to fight him after all.

"Stay back here" Leo said

"You've lost Magellan, why won't you just admit that"

"I won't let you pass this door"

"Capturing the three of us wouldn't exactly make your name any better Magellan"

"It's my duty to prevent rascals like you from wreaking havoc in the outside world, If I can prevent even just one of you from getting out of here I'd gladly do it"

"I guess there's no talking you out of here is there?"

Magellan just stayed silent as Leo transformed.

"Chloro ball" Magellan yelled

"Aqua fortis" Leo chanted as he charged into the clearly poison laden Magellan. All he needed was one good touch. He managed to grab Magellan and then kicked him onto the wall. His fortis would make sure that Magellan couldn't stand in a few minutes. What he didn't know was that he was fighting a man who ate poisoned food everyday. Acids barely affect him. In no time Magellan's wide arrays of poisons countered his strong and absorbed it.

"I never knew you were a logia"

"What the hell!?" yelled Leo, completely taken by surprise

"Delicious, a bit spicy but still delicious" Magellan taunted as he got back to his feet.

"Could be a bit better if you'd trained it a little bit, but of course logia like you, think you're already invincible!" Magellan knowing that Leo would probably make a short work of his poison has resorted to haki punches and kicks. Magellan's size which was larger and a bit taller than Leo didn't seem to be a problem for him as his moves were faster with a reflex to match.

Leo still targeting Magellan's point of weakness didn't realize that his foe has already read his move. He was going to attack his legs. And he was going to make sure his foe didn't get a chance to do that.

Magellan did a high kick, taking the bait Leo quickly ducked and charged at Magellan's other foot. he wrestled Magellan onto the ground and twisted his arm to elbow Magellan's face but Magellan was faster as he brought up his arm and grabbed the side of Leo's head then slammed it onto the floor next to him. At the same time with his left arm Magellan pushed himself up and grabbed Leo's left arm across from him, locking its joint. Leo having had enough practice with the doc quickly accumulated all his haki on his free arm and formed a gyo. He quickly elbowed Magellan's knee before he could completely lock his other arm with his thighs.

Magellan stood up first but Leo did a leg sweep. It hit Magellan's shin and forced him to tumble backwards and hitting a wall behind him.

He spat to his side, glaring down at him as he got back into position.

Leo motioned Magellan to come at him. Magellan not suspecting anything charged at him but it was exactly what Leo had wanted. With his acid he's partially dissolved the ground between him and Magellan. With Magellan's weight, the floor would give. He fully understood this was not how a man fights his adversary but he wasn't going to risk it. He had to get to that boat before his men does.

As he got nearer, the entire floor began to tremble more than usual but Magellan was too fired up to notice as he prepared another combo the floor finally gave and before he knew it he was already midway onto the first floor below. Leo without a second glance quickly got back to Hayato and Bentham and together they opened the door leading to a small pier where their getaway was waiting for them. The boat really was a small vessel not designed for sea travel. He even doubted it could hold the three of them.

"Come on you two, get on it! He'll come back in any second"

"What about you?"

"I'm staying…"

"ARE YOU CRAZY!? "

Not in the mood to argue Bentham stripped off of his shirts to let the two men see the dark blue lines along her arm that were his veins "he got me alright? If it reaches my heart then I'm done for and the only one who has the antidote is Magellan"

"Didn't you see how pissed that guy was? You think he'd even bother saving you?"

"What choice do I have!?"

"You want me to get it from him?"

"No no no there's no time, I want you to get the hell away from here and deliver my message"

"Hey, can't you change yourself into a stone or something?" Leo asked out of the blue to which Bentham didn't answer

Knowing that he's made his decision Leo and Hayato accepted it "okay what is it?"

"Please tell Strawhat…the boy that's going to be a Pirate King someday…that I'm still alive and that he shouldn't worry about me ever, I've made my choice"

"Okay…"

"And please don't tell him about this" said Bentham, referring to the poison to which Leo nodded.

"NOW GO!"

"Wait" Leo turned "Bentham, whoever you are, before we go I just want to say thank you, thank you for helping us…I wish we could go out of here together, I truly do, you seem like a great man and I assure you your sacrifice is not going to be in vain"

"Me too" Hayato added

"OKAMA CHOP!"

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" Leo yelled, hands over his blinded eyes

"Can't you see!? I'm an okama!"

"YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE ONE!...although now that I think about it you did say some pretty okama-ish stuff…"

"I'm sorry but they don't allow make-ups in here!"

"Okay, you're a really fabulous okama! There satisfied?"

"Aww…stop joking around youu~!" Bentham said blushing, Leo just rolled his eyes while Hayato decided to take a nap on the boat.

"So you sure you're not coming?"

"You know the answer to that, you can't save everybody Leo"

Leo seemed to be hit hard by that as it brought back some painful memories from his past that he's buried along with anything that he deemed as weakness

"I'll never forget this, thank you Bentham"

He just nodded back.

An okama's farewell needs no words.

* * *

"This boat is hopeless"

After they'd navigated around the inner passage of the prison walls 'canal' and passed the Gate of Justice which has surprisingly opened for them (courtesy of the Blackbeard's crew) they realized that the boat has no sail or oars for that matter. All that could be used to navigate the boat was the pedal, like those in a bicycle to move the thing forward, and also the standard steering.

"It's useless, our boat is caught in a strong current" Hayato resurfaced from under the boat, unsuccessful in his attempt to steer the little boat away from the current while Leo still aimlessly tried to steer it with the helm.

"Again, why is it a bad thing? If anything, this current has made things easier!" Leo looked behind him and was relieved that nobody seemed to be chasing them "the farther away we are from that place the better right?"

"I have a feeling that it isn't a coincidence that these currents are situated at the entrance of Impel Down, and the fact that nobody's chasing us makes it even more suspicious"

"Doesn't matter, with Magellan out of the way I feel like I can take on whatever it is ahead of us…uhmm hey…do you feel that?...Is it an earthquake? No…It can't be…we're in the middle of the s…" before he could finish it the boat was launched into the sky.

The last thing Leo remembered was his body being tossed out of his boat

* * *

Leo winced at the feeling of cold hard ice being pressed against his cheek, and even though his head felt like it might split in two anytime from the deafening high-pitched ringing noise in his ears, the feeling was unmistakable. He shuddered at the thought that he might not have escaped Impel Down at all, this was him waking up on the fifth level after being shocked countless times by that sadistic warden. But then, if he remembered it right, that room ought to be submerged in seawater by now, that was if he wasn't dreaming about the giant too. He then carefully stood up not wanting to alert whoever in charge of this place. As he looked around things just got even stranger and there was no time for him to be relieved as he figured out that he was standing on a frozen sea, which under his weight could crack and break any second. He looked around the frozen horizon for his samurai friend but as far as his eyes could see there was nothing ahead but the wavy solid translucent surface of the ocean. Suddenly the ringing in his ears receded and a loud explosion from behind him prompted him to turn around and what he saw was a sight worse than the hell itself and unfortunate for him the spot where he stood on had provided him a panoramic view of the great war that was unfolding before him.

It was a war, Leo could understand at least that much but he didn't know it could be this intense…and downright batshit insane. Even though he's only been in one war way back when he was still a petty soldier he was sure as hell this was no ordinary war. From where he stood he could see several wrecked pirate ships varying in size, caught in the frozen sea. Up on the dock of what he figured as the mainland, dozens of gigantic cyborgs were seen frying people below them with laser beams from their mouths, the screams of the poor people were quickly matched by a huge explosion as one of the pirates managed to destroy one of the behemoth. On the other side, several weird looking people, obviously devil fruit users were busy mowing down people like they were nothing. He'd never seen this many devil fruit users in one place before and the varieties of them fascinated him. He saw a guy with blue flames, then he could see another guy hovering high above with his lower body nowhere to be seen. He should have felt right at home, he should have, being surrounded by 'his' kind but instead he felt a sense of dread, he realized that these 'people' have developed their abilities so much farther than him it was so easy for them to cause such mass destruction. They were just like the sand man and Magellan, they're comfortable with their abilities unlike him who chose to shun it from most of his lives and treated it like a curse instead. This was exactly what he'd be like had he given up and let it take over his body: A merciless killing machine with the blood of thousands on his hands. _Is this what I'm going to be?_

Leo wanted to just turn back, find a boat and just sails away, but he knew he couldn't. This was what he's been waiting years for, this was the place where he'd exact his revenge. He kept saying to himself that this wasn't worth it, that he'd be escaping prison for nothing, that he was better than him but at the same time he knew he was not that innocent village boy anymore and he could never return to that life no matter how he wished that wasn't true, this was his life now. A life of a wanted man, a criminal, like most of devil fruit users are, like all of those people made him out to be. One of them, the sandman, the one who's ruined his life and countless others was here, on this island. Today he was going to pay, to hell with the consequence.

Just as luck would have it, he saw someone right ahead of him jumped down from the dock onto the frozen sea below. He must be desperate to have jumped from such height, or he could just be not aware that the sea was frozen solid. Before he knew it another guy leaped after the first guy but his was a much more controlled dive allowing him to catch up with the bigger guy in no time. The first guy, he figured as Jinbe, a former neighbor back in the prison, seemed to be alerted and quickly twisted around midair to intercept the flaming guy. Jinbe launched his trademark fishman karate punch but it was weak, the lava guy knew it and thus made no attempt to block it, instead he launched an attack of his own while Jinbe was not in any position to protect himself with both his arms not in the position and by the time Jinbe realized it the lava guy has already pierced through his haki armor. It was so powerful it went straight through his body and burned the poor guy who was nestled in his arms. _That guy seemed to be the lava guy's target_ all along. _Why bother, he looks like he'll die any second now_...

With the relentless war still raging around them Leo couldn't make out what the two figures were saying. He was thinking of getting closer but his prison uniform would expose him immediately and he was sure he didn't want to be his next casualty, having guessed that the lava guy was picking off the level 6 escapees one by one and that he would be on his list.

Out of nowhere a sand blast sliced the lava guy along with the frozen ground beneath him. And just as fast, the sandman appeared and swiftly produced a sandstorm that launched Jinbe and the dying guy off the ground and into the sky. Leo was surprised that the sandman had stayed true to the 'Impel Down alliance' but even more surprised by his own luck, the guy has just literally fallen out of the sky, there standing in front of him out of thousands of people in this godforsaken place, for him to do as he wish. He couldn't help the smirk on his face.

_It's now or never_

He made his decision and charged ahead.


	15. Battle of Marineford

The yuletide

For many people in the North the sixteenth of December is a very special day. It was the day where they celebrated the birth of the Lord. When the bells ring people from all over the country would chant the sacred song and hasten earnestly to the remembrance of the Lord and leave their worldly business. Then the men would slaughter one of their livestock. The women would prepare the traditional banquet. The children would eagerly open their beautifully wrapped presents. Whole families will sit around the biggest table set up in their warm home as the mothers serve their wonderfully prepared meal. There shouldn't be anybody sleeping with an empty stomach that day. And for those who are fortunate enough to live in the capital, the royal family would invite their citizen to come and have a feast with them in the castle. It truly _was_ the happiest day of the year for the citizen of Thule. But, they know the yule celebration would never be the same again. Not since that night. That one fateful night that changed the kingdom forever.

Leo was lying face down on the cold floor of his cell, his attire which consists of long-sleeved shirt, a pair of dress pants and tie were still left unchanged since the day he was banished there. The only difference being the pair of seastone cuffs that were locked firmly around his wrists which acted as a constant reminder of his current predicament. Struggle as he may, the cuffs were locked tight and there was no forcing it open. It wasn't only the cuffs, it was the whole room, sucking his whole energy with its seastone-made enclosure. He felt like drowning but without the way out.

The room was completely dull and bare, save for the lone toilet bowl in the far corner. It would have been impossible to know how long he's been locked here in this windowless room. Once a day (or what he felt like once a day) some green gunk he'd translated as 'food' would be dumped into the room through the slot on the rusted metal door, it was the only way he keeps track of time in this hellish existence.

The initial shock had worn off after a while. But the terror was still in there messing with his thoughts and emotions. He'd screamed and yelled in pure frustration. He'd punched and kicked the door to no avail. It wasn't the darkness, it wasn't the loneliness. It was his own voice, one he didn't remember to ever speak, had become a constant companion in his isolation. It kept repeating the same thing over and over again, eating away what he once was and held so dearly bit by bit. He didn't know how long he'll last, the memory of her kept him from giving in but even that was wavering.

The loud banging sound coming from the opening of the locks pulled him away from his thoughts. He turned his head and squinted his eyes as a sliver of light from outside shone his dark corner. It took some time for his eyes to adjust to the brightness as the heavy door continued to swing open. From his angle he could only see the blur of the shoe of the visitor, he didn't know who it was but he knew he was going inside. That was all he needed to know.

He quickly got back on his feet, and stealthily pressed his back against the wall next to the opening door, he felt his heart pounding in his throat. This was his only chance.

The visitor entered. It was a man. His medium stature outlined by the lights behind him but because of his position Leo couldn't see his face very clearly. The door slammed shut behind the man and Leo swiftly wrestled the man into the ground, one hand over the man's mouth. He quickly reached for the man's pockets, for something...but he only found a dial in his pocket. He tossed it, not even caring what its purpose was. He got back to the man, he looked at the man's eyes, confused, why didn't he bring any weapons? did he have a death wish by going into the lion's den alone and unarmed? Then he saw it, the glimmer, even though it was pitch black in there, that eyes, it couldn't be anything but the doc's.

"It's me. Leo"

"You've got to help me end this!" Leo said in a hitched voice that cracked with desperation.

"Calm down" said the doctor who was still pinned to the ground

"I-I-I need some help, I can't do it alone, they won't let me!"

"I'm not going to let you kill yourself!"

Leo grabbed the doctor's collar "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, HE IS ME!"

"It still is not your fault Leo"

"I-I-I did it...he told me I DID IT!"

The doctor just lay there, he chose to keep his silent and let his son let it all out

"Y-y-you need to lock me up somewhere, not here, this is not enough, he'll escape I know it"

"That wasn't you Leo, it never was"

Leo's breath getting more unnatural as he took in the words "WHO IS IT THEN!? TELL ME, Y-Y-YOU DON'T GET TO KILL HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE AND GET AWAY WITH IT DAD, IT'S JUSTICE YOU TAUGHT ME THAT!"

"Listen to me Leo..."

"NO! D-dad you listen to me, if you love me, please let me end this...I-I can't see it anymore dad, I-I just can't" Leo let go of the doc as he slumped back on the wall behind him. His eyes glistening but he tried to not let it go in front of his dad.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry I disappointed you…" the doc moved in front of him

"Just give me something, something please, PLEASE"

"I didn't come this far to see you kill yourself Leo"

"WHAT IS IT THEN!?" Leo yelled at his dad's face, frustration overcoming his senses.

The doctor reached his hand out in the darkness for something, "this" the doctor took the dial from the floor.

"I-I don't understand..."

The doctor replied by pushing the button on the dial which was revealed to be a tone dial.

There was the static noise typical of a tone dial then Leo began to hear it, he immediately knew who it was.

_"I've fought so hard, we, have fought a battle that we could have won but the world isn't just ready for it yet"_ there was a light chuckle from her before she continued, "_who would have imagined that keeping alive would be this difficult.._." she paused, "_but i'm still here, my father may be gone, but i'm keeping my promise, for you my dearest citizen, I am going to try my best keep up with the challenges that live have put forward for me and this great kingdom. Justice must prevail_"

"_Just in case I didn't make it, I want_-" suddenly the loud bang of a door being forced open interrupted the recording.

"_Where's everybody? Where's Leo!?_" the voice became barely audible, Leo could imagine her hiding the recorder out of sight of the perpetrator.

"_kukukuku I took care of him, he's waiting for you on the other side along with your precious father kuhahaha_" right at the moment Leo realized that this man could not possibly be his 'other' side. Even though they were different, he still shared his voice and certainly it wasn't his laughter.

"_It__'s impossible! You can't possibly defeat them_!" she retorted

She was replied with more condescending laughter, "_will you please move away from the window Your Highness_"

"_I'm saving the best for last, you should be grateful for that_" then there was the sound of his steps coming closer to where the recorder was. "_If it's any consolation, I'm going to try to make it as painless as possible_"

"_Why!? Why did you do this? You're not one of them_" the man tsked at her, "_I'm just a guy who's up for the right price_"

"_You killed my father, my brother...I'm the ruler of this country now, my people need me, they need to know the truth, tell me how much do you want_?" the guy chuckled "_You Royals really think your money can buy anything don't you? look, you're really a sweet looking girl if you weren't on my list i'd have spared you but right now but I'm afraid this is out of my hands_"

"_What did they offer you? just tell me what it was and i'll double it!_" there was a long silence before there was the sound of the clacking of the shoes again "_it doesn't matter what they offered, spoiled little Princess like you need to understand that if you play with fire sooner than later you're going to get burned_"

"_Any last words?_"

"_Yes" _she inhaled, "_I...have no regrets_"

Their voice became distant and it as accompanied by a subtle and continuous whistling sound. Then there was silence. A loud static then it was finished. The grainy sound made it difficult for him to convey the conversation but there could be no mistake, it was her voice.

"It was taken right at that night, before she...was found"

"Where did you get it? How did you get in here!?"

"That's not relevant" the doc still looked at Leo

"It wasn't you, there's nothing you could have done"

"B…but I failed all those people, I failed her" he ran his fingers through his hair

The doc let go of the hug and for the first time, he saw his son after he'd left home. Honestly, he never thought when he bid farewell to his son it'd end up like this. His face looked tired, his chin unshaved, he smelled bad, this thing's really done a number on him. "Leo, I was the one who raised you up from when you were little, I'm the one who trained you, I know who you are Leo and you are no murderer, you're a fighter, you don't give up"

"You haven't failed her, failing her means you're letting her sacrifice gone to waste, failing her means letting that man goes away"

"Then tell me, give me a name"

"He goes by the name of Crocodile, in the underworld he's known as a soldier for the Revolutionary Army, the Marines have several files about him"

"Then surely they know I'm not him? I'm not in the Revolutionary Army, I've never even met them"

"You're not, but you're their fall guy, 'your' doing made the headline all around the world Leo and the public will want some answers and the Marines would all be too happy to pin this on the Revolutionary Army, with or without Crocodile"

"I just can't...this is too much" Leo shook his head, all this theories sounded like something out of his comic books. But as it's been proven time and time again, real life and comic books were not actually that different.

"I just want you to stop blaming yourself for this, i'll do anything in my power to get this guy but until then you have to be strong for me"

"T-this this voices, he…kept whispering to me that what happened that night…I kept denying him but I can't get him out of my head father, I cannot hold out much longer, he's getting stronger, I don't know what's going to happen to me when that happens, I'm really scared"

The doctor frowned, "Leo, listen to me" the doc gripped his shoulders firmly to get his attention "He can't do nothing to you, as long as you're in the guard of a seastone he won't ever take you over, he has no body that's why all he could is taunting you with this terrors. I fought him that night remember? He's nowhere as strong as that"

"But you don't know that, you don't know what's happened that night, only fruit user could have done that in such a scale and I CAN do that to someone else's kingdom, not now but someday..."

"Leo, what that man did wasn't caused by his devil fruit, he had a choice and he chose to take the bad path, it didn't mean that you have to take the same path as him...look I've told you before, when I was in the Marines I have many fruit users comrades, we fought together, we protected each other, we have the same ideals, many ordinary and fruit user Marines alike have died that day and they died a hero. This 'other side' of you is not caused by your fruit Leo, you must always remember that, it's feeding on your stress and your frustration. He likes it when you're weak because that's when he's at the strongest, and that's exactly why you must stay strong"

"Leo, they're going to send you away soon, guilty or not, and I'm not sure if they'll ever allow me to visit you again…"

"Where?"

"Impel Down, they're going to try you there"

"Yeah maybe that's where I belong eh dad?" he's really thought this through, the doctor thought. Decades of serving the Marines have taught him that human psyche is a frail thing. Here, the punishment wasn't even the main issue, no, the most traumatizing factor was the fear of seeing your consciousness being replaced right in front of your very own eyes. The total loss of control and one's realization of being at the mercy of something foreign and deviant is enough to bring down even the toughest men.

The doc sighed "I've thought about this a long time and I really wished to God it wouldn't have to turn out this way...but it seems like there's no other way"

The doctor moved his hands so that both of his hands' index and thumb finger touch each other, then they mashed it together with the other hand and slowly separated them. It looked ridiculous, even Leo didn't know where the doc was going with it.

With the fingers still like that he turned his head to Leo, "What did you see?"

Leo immediately realizing what the question was about immediately used his Gyo on his eyes, then he saw it, it was a thin red line. It was thinner than a hair cut into 10 pieces, he'd have missed it if it wasn't for the glowing red aura emanating from it. Leo realized it was a thread of the doc's haki.

"Do you still remember when I told you people could place their haki on other things besides from their own body?"

"Yeah, I remember Danny saying that the Blackwood trees have peoples haki in them, though I didn't know it could be placed inside another person's body"

"You're about to learn that it's quite possible, but I need your full attention in this in order for this to work"

"You see Leo the thing about haki is, you can shape and mold it into whatever you like. You can amplify your strength with it, your defense, you can touch fruit users, you can use it to do anything if you can convert your raw haki into the desired hatsu"

"You're saying I can tell my haki to stop him from taking over my body? Just like that?"

"The problem with that is, this other you, he's a part of you, he can control your haki just as much as you can. That's why I think no matter you hard you've trained your haki he still managed to overcome it"

"Then what's the point of wearing the seastone bracelet then?"

The doctor was silent for a moment

"It was your late father's, can't you feel it?"

Leo's eyes widened as he realized.

"It's been a very long time since he put his haki in that bracelet, his haki decays overtime of course, it's still there making sure you're safe but i'm afraid it won't last long now, that's why I think this'll help"

"I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner, I thought all this time it was the some kind of an effect of the seaston...b-but...it is my father's haki all this time?"

"He was a very powerful man"

"So, how do we do it?"

"You have to state a condition and then pledge"

"Condition?"

"Like poker, the more you have at stake, the more determined you are to win it. It also plays a great part in this, the more serious the pledge is the more it stays true to your wish, because Leo, there's no absolute guarantee that this will work just as there's no way you can make yourself invincible through your hatsu"

After awhile Leo nodded, he took a deep breath, "okay let's do this"

"My wish if I ever could get out of this, is to find that man who's done all this and not only him, I want to bring justice to every single person who're responsible for this"

"I want my haki as well as my fruit ability to be used only to assist me in that and NOTHING else"

"-and i'll die if I break the rule"

The doctor looked at Leo's eyes and understood his son's wishes.

"Very well" the doc neared both his hands to his chest and moved it as if he was tying his haki into something inside of him. He didn't feel anything though.

"Wow, that was quite painless"

"I could make it painful if you wanted me to" the doc said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"One more thing Leo, I know that you hate your fruit ability and want none of it but I want you to understand that your ability is special, there's no devil fruit that is exactly the same as each other in this world. People out there search the seas to have that kind of power and would do anything to get it. Don't slip, you cannot let anybody know about your power whatever the reason is, promise me this"

"Well, they already kind of knows my power"

"Not specifically, all they know is that you killed all those people, how you did it is still pure speculation"

"So...what? I killed them with my haki?"

"It doesn't matter what you say, they want a scapegoat they got one and they'll still send you away whatever your answer's going to be. Anything but the truth"

The doctor put his hands on his son's shoulders "Leo, you have to be strong for this okay? You CANNOT give up. The place that you're going to is what's possibly the most dangerous and unforgiving place for outlaws. Don't let your guard down and keep practicing the moves that I've taught you anytime anywhere you could"

"You think...?"

"Leo, when you're tried in Enies Lobby, you're never going to see the light for a long time and Leo, believe me if there's a way somehow I would break you out of here right now b-"

"Father, you've done more than enough" Leo said. This was his problem not his. He couldn't drag his own father into this mess. He didn't want to lose him like he lost her. No, he was going to be a man and face it like one.

"I assure you i'd do anything I can to clear you out of here, i'll call some friends and get the guy who's behind this out of his hole"

"I-I guess this is goodbye then?"

"Until then Leo"

"Until then father" Leo hugged his father, a little longer than usual this time. He was savoring his smell and his warmth, he didn't know if he'd ever get the chance to meet him again.

* * *

More than thirteen years later

Leo ran faster and faster. So fast that neither of them wouldn't see see him coming. There can be no mistake. He's waited too long a time for that. He was really close now, it was so close he could smell his scent from here.

He leaped.

The lava Marine realized it a little too late, Leo's prison issued shoe landed hard against the side of the Marine. In less than a second the Marine was already halfway flying towards the ruined fort inland but Leo didn't give it a second glance because he had more important matters to settle.

"YOU!" Crocodile yelled, he was so surprised he didn't realize he's gnashed his fine cigar against his teeth

"I'm not going to let you escape this time Crocodile!"

"Tell me the people responsible for that night, was it the big boss himself, Monkey D. Dragon!?"

He focused all his attention on his single greatest foe alone afraid that a single distraction would let this man slip away. He could see it clearly. The paleness of his skin, the scar that cut through his face and the dark shadows under his eyes. Impel Down has really did a number on him.

Crocodile spat "I've got nothing to say to a loser"

"Well, it looks like I've given Magellan too much credit, in the end I have to do it all by myself!"

"DESERT SPADA!" Crocodile yelled as he produced a wall of sand from his hand. It struck Leo right in the middle, slashing his body in two with his head completely gone.

Crocodile smiled, he couldn't believe it would be this easy. But to his surprise, the two parts of Leo's body which were still intact remerged, by filling out the void space in the middle from each of the remaining body parts, the last part to be regenerated was his head. "What did you expect by attacking a logia with a weak attack like that?" Leo taunted. Since that night he's trained reflex so that his body would turn to his element without waiting for his command as suggested by the doc. This was the first time he actually saw his improved reflex in action.

"Kuhahaha so it has come to this isn't it? Basic fights? Is that what you're aiming at?"

Leo smiled, "now's a good time as any to see if your basic is as good as your ability"

"kukukuku looks like I have no choice"

"You didn't give her any either"

"Who...?" Crocodile was silent for a second, recalling what his foe referred as 'she' "Ah...the beautiful sweet _dead_ Princess of Thule! Well I did give her a choice"

"W-what!?"

"Die...or be my slave kuhahahha"

"You really want to die today aren't you" Leo murmured as he prepared his attack. He lunged himself at his foe with the improved soru that the doctor had managed to teach him. He was sure that a man like Crocodile understood this move himself so he only had element of surprise on his side and also he wouldn't want his arm to be met with his 'water-suction' ability.

It was successful. Crocodile was taken completely by surprise and could do nothing as Leo sent his fist right into his nose. This was not the speed of the punk he'd fought years ago.

Leo wasted no time and sent another punch at the disoriented Crocodile's face. Before Crocodile could even get back to his senses Leo had already taken Crocodile by his hair to keep his head up and swiftly pounced his temple. He hadn't let go of his head and used the opportunity to send his foe a barrage of punches. Leo took him by the neck, "THE NAME" he demanded, but Crocodile just looked at him with that disgusting smile of his, Leo immediately slammed his face at the cold hard surface.

"GET UP!" Leo pulled his foe up and sent him to nearby ship with a powerful uppercut.

Seconds later Crocodile showed up from the opening his smashed-up body had produced. His looks perfectly conveyed his embarrassment and anguish.

"I didn't recall you being this weak, I think people over there is even stronger than you" said Leo referring to the group of Marines and Pirates fighting nearby. "At least they know how to fight and i respect them more for that. While you! You're like a weak bullied child who's hiding behind his momma's back, you're NOTHING without it!"

"Do NOT compare me to those useless fools" Crocodile said as he dusted off his fur coat. "Who needs basic when I can have the power of the Devil himself in my hands"

"Ready to talk?"

Crocodile dispersed into sands and they scattered all around Leo. He couldn't sense his haki now.

"DESERT LA SPADA!" Leo saw movement out of the corner of his eyes.

On reflex Leo shielded himself with his arms, his reflex was spot on as multiple massive solid blades made of compressed sands struck and annihilated his body completely.

He cursed, being a logia that means he was impervious to most physical attacks which means that the attack was nothing more than a distraction and that Crocodile had something bigger in store for him. He just hoped he wasn't that big of a coward to use such attack to flee.

He was right. As he reformed his body, starting from head to toe, he saw that the amount and density of the sand that whirled around him was already triple the original size, he couldn't even see past the sand.

So this was how that bastard was going to fight him. By hiding himself behind his sands so that he couldn't sense his haki. He knew that as long as he was in his sand form his haki would be concealed. He heard several crashing sound nearby and heard the cracking of the frozen sea surface getting louder and louder. It was undoubtedly heading for him now and then he understood that Crocodile was targeting for the single weakness that even him couldn't ever negate.

Because of the blinding sandstorm he didn't know exactly where or how big the cracks were, but he knew it was coming to him fast. Forgetting about his foe, he turned and ran. He didn't know where he was headed as the sandstorm seemed to follow him everywhere he went. The crackling noise was now reverberating all around him, he didn't know which way he was supposed to take. Not wanting to taking rash action he stood still, trying to listen to the source of the cracking sound. He then heard Crocodile's laughter all around him. "FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!" Leo shouted at the sands encircling him.

Then the blurry shadow of a cannonball accompanied by a noise akin to loud whistling burst through the wall of sand and went past him. It had sounded like it was only a few inches away from his right ear, he could even feel the breeze. Immediately afterwards a horrific explosion shaken the frozen sea right behind him. The noise was accompanied by strong radiation of heat and a shock wave that knocked Leo off his feet. The shockwave also swept away most of the sandstorm, clearing the sight for him. Leo didn't know what hit him but he knew it couldn't be Crocodile's doing. Still lying on the ground he saw the crater and the resulting cracks from the explosion, it was spreading. He immediately stood up only to be shaken by another explosion.

_I know the sound very well, this is no Crocodile or any fruit users' doing, these are artillery fires which are clearly being targeted at me_. He saw another cannonball flew through the sky at his far right_...Or not_

He saw the Pirates jumping off the platform ahead to their ships. Some were already climbing the nets onto their stuck ships. "C'MON, LADS, SHOOT IT WITH EVERYTHIN' WE GOT!" a pirate yelled from their ship.

A little relieved that he wasn't being targeted by the Marines, or anybody for that matter, he immediately got his attention back to Crocodile who's managed to slip away in the midst of the bombardment.

He looked around the now not-so-empty ground and found no trace of the fur-coated nemesis, "DAMMIT!"

"DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT! GET BACK HERE YOU YELLOW!" Leo went around shouting foul words at his nemesis wishing to provoke him to attack him, which unfortunately has worked only at eliciting a couple of annoyed glances from the fleeing Pirates.

More Pirates descended form the mainland onto the frozen sea and making his search even more difficult. The shouting, the explosions, the swooshing sounds would have deafened him if he wasn't so engrossed in searching for his foe.

Then he saw it. The sand. No sand moved like that. "GOTCHA!" Leo enthusiastically shouted as he started to run after the hovering sand, shoving people out of his way, several of those people yelled at him but paid no attention to them, all he cared about now was to end it once and for all. Soon he realized his mistake as his feet caught something which made him tumbling into the ground. It took a while for Leo to realize that his foot wasn't only caught in something, it was also restrained by something which was very solid. Somehow this reminded him of that sadistic warden back in Impel Down who'd trapped his foot in a similar fashion. He was almost expecting for the electric surge if it wasn't for the groans of the similarly trapped pirates all around him.

"Oh shit they all got caught!" a nearby fleeing pirate shouted. "They're done" shouted another, most didn't even spare a glance as they ran past them. Leo was surprised nobody cared to save their buddies from the 'binding'. What he didn't know was that they've encountered and evaded her enough times to understand that once you're caught by her 'cage' then you're as good as dead.

"What the HELL is this stuff made of?" Leo grunted in frustration, the black 'thing' was tightly and rigidly locked around him like cuffs. Only this one flawlessly followed the grooves of his legs as if it was specially molded for him. And not only that, his acid was also rendered useless against it. _No way could this be an ordinary lock, there's not even a keyhole...it's times like this that I wish I know how to shapeshift!_

"Bring them back to the HQ and see if any of them is on the poster" a feminine sound full of authority blared from behind him but Leo was too busy trying to get his foot out of the strange binding to care.

The sound of the heel of her boot went around the crowd of the captured pirates and stopped right in front of Leo. Leo saw the feet of the woman, a cigarette dropped right in front of him. He looked up to see what her problem was.

"You...you're still alive"

"H-hina?

It was so unexpected that it'd completely taken the breath out of his lungs. The Marine officer standing in front of him was none other than his former childhood friend. Hina. Her hair was still as light and magnificent as he'd remembered, only this was longer. She also looked more mature with the business-like attire, dark red lipstick, and the cigarette..._and is she wearing a make-up_?_ Oh and of course her curves, looks like she isn't so ashamed of her 'gift' anymore_. Now that he thought about it, it shouldn't be this surprising to see her here fighting pirates wearing that prized Marine officer coat, after all she went to the same school as him and if anybody was going to make it high in the Marines it would be her. Well, he always joked that it'd be him first then her, but seeing how things has turned out, it'd be safe to assume that he'd no chance of even being accepted as a latrine cleaner in the Marines' most secluded, smallest, and insignificant post.

"So, you're a Capt-" ***SLAAPPP***

The sudden slap that crossed his cheek stung like hell. He certainly hadn't expected that coming from what he thought as one his best friends.

When he looked up at her again her eyes were furious and her lips was quivering, "DON'T" she warned, her voice stuck in her throat, "t-talk back to me"

He looked at her confused. He didn't remember ever hurting her, heck she even gave him a 'good luck' kiss when he shipped out to serve at the capital. That was the last time he'd seen her. He was half-expecting her to explain it when she continued with a cold sarcastic smile, "of course you don't know". She grabbed his arm before she yanked him away from the rest of the captured pirates. Her subordinates fortunately knew better than to ask her.

* * *

After awhile of walking in silence with Leo futilely trying to ask her what the slap was for they stopped. They were still on the middle of the frozen sea but out of everybody's sight. He sighed with relieve for that, at least she didn't throw him to the HQ herself.

She turned to face him then she just stood there scrutinizing his sweaty, unshaven, and disheveled appearance.

"Uhm...How are you?"

Instead of replying Hina pushed him down into a kneeling position, then without warning roundhouse kicked Leo. Leo tumbled back, the stinging feeling in his nose told him that it was broken.

"Not so tough now aren't you!?"

As soon as Leo resumed his position he was met by one of her kicks again.

"DOES IT HURT LEO? HUH? DOES IT HURT!?" she yelled at him almost maniacally. He could just turn into 'liquid' anytime but that'd mean hurting her who was clearly confused. His head started to hurt, but this wasn't the kind of pain he got when someone bashed his head into a wall, no, that's happened too often for Leo it wouldn't have had an effect on him now. This was what he usually get when he tries to think too much usually in an attempt to make sense of things, things like mathematics or politics. This woman, couldn't be his friend, this was not the shy but gentle village girl he knew who lived with her grandparents in a mansion in the forest and kept countless of pet birds in her backyard. This was a monster wearing her skin.

She beat him couple of times with his face, now barely recognizable, being her favorite target.

"It's okay" he unexpectedly said beneath the swelling mess that was his face, "it's okay"

"W-WHAT!?"

"To cry...it's okay"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" she kept yelling this at him but the slight quiver in her voice didn't escape him. She kicked and punched him some more, they were weaker now, more random and they missed all the pressure points. He could feel tiny sprinkles of tear drops moistening the skin of his naked broken limb.

"Hina, for whatever it is you think I've done to you...I apologize" ***BAMMM*** another punch. He winced. Normal punches wouldn't usually hurt him since he could always shield himself with his haki but this was somehow felt like he was being punched by brass-knuckles. Brass-knuckles that were ten times harder than the ordinary and she didn't even know how to regulate her haki yet.

"Sorry? SORRY!?" she chuckled lightly "SORRY IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" ***BAAAMMM*** this time it was so hard it sent the back of his head smashing against the chilled ground.

"YOU TOOK AWAY THE ONE MOST PRECIOUS THING TO ME!" Leo expected more painful outburst this time but was surprised when all that struck him was a petty punch. Through the blur that was his vision he could make out her figure now slumped on the ground, the memory seemed to have hit her hard but it never crossed his mind to take advantage of it and run. He instead broke the binding around his hands and pulled himself closer to her. Despite her state she didn't miss the sound of her binding being torn open, she wiped her tears off her eye and was surprised to see that Leo's arms were free.

"Wha..? How-d you?"

"My arms are considerably stronger than my legs" Leo said through his swelled lips, but it came out as some weird murmur in her ears

"Don't come any closer!" she said as if the lump of meat before her could do anything to hurt her.

"L-listen to me Hina" **cough** blood spurted from his throat, "I was framed...I-it wasn't me, thirteen years ago...it wasn't me. You must trust me for this, i didn't do it, I'D RATHER DIE!" Leo said as trickle of blood trickled down from his mouth down onto the ice.

For a moment they both just stood there, Hina looking at his eyes, searching for something in his chartreuse eyes and all she could find was the boy that gave her his coat and accompanied her back to her home when it was hailing outside. The boy who she had her first kiss with when they were just ten under the mistletoe. Though it was more of an experimental thing than anything serious. Thinking about it, she remembered having a small crush on him back then but gave up when she realized he wasn't at that stage yet where he could see her as any other thing than being 'just one of the boys'. Back on the ice cap, she wanted so badly to believe him, that those eyes could not possibly be capable of holding such lies, but she could never do that if by believing him it means betraying her memories of her late parents.

"NO! It's not right!" she said, more to herself than to the man in front of her. She was certain he could see it in her tearing eyes more clearly now. She cursed herself for being this much of a pathetic sucker.

"Just give me a chance, one chance to make this right again. The man who's framed me and responsible for all of this is here, in this place, I was chasing him. After I get that man you can bash me all you like, just give me this"

"Hina don't believe you" she said in the third person, old habits die hard.

"I'm not a monster Hina, I have no reason to kill all those people, you know me...just this time, let me go" _Those darned eyes again_

Her face told him how conflicted she was. But after a moment she seemed to have made up her mind as she moved closer to him...and...

"Let him go"

The voice rang from out of nowhere. Hina immediately turned her head to see a man wearing a worn-out Impel Down inmate uniform standing not far from them, a funky-looking katana in his hand.

"Who are you?" Hina let go of Leo and turned to face the figure

"I'm his partner"

"His partner!?" Hina looked back at Leo, a bewildered look on her face. "He's not...I can explain!"

"Hina should have known better, you really are nothing more than a member of the filthy Revolutionary Army...!" she said fixing her gloves with her back to him.

"Who's Hina?" the samurai asked, slightly puzzled

"NO LISTEN HINA! WHAT YOU WANT IS ME NOT HIM!"

But Hina was already charging at Hayato with all her might, this time Leo was even sure Hayato wouldn't be able to get out of this.

"SHE'S A FRUIT USER!" he warned, that was the only assistance he could offer to his friend and he hoped his friend knew what was best for him and just run away. There was no reason to bring Hayato into his problem.

"MANGETSU DAIKON KIRI!" Hayato chanted his move but it didn't seem to hit anything. Leo didn't know if he should be grateful knowing that his friend cared about him enough to try and get him out of his own mess or not. He just wouldn't be able to forgive himself if Hayato was recaptured because of him. But then he felt the coldness of the binding around his legs to be loosening. He looked down and saw that his feet was free. Then he saw that Hina had already had his friend's wrists trapped with her 'cage' though he hasn't quite let go of his katana.

"STOP IT!" Hina cast a side glance, she didn't expect him to have that much strength left after all the beatings. Hina turned to face her former best friend. Hayato used that opportunity to place the katana between his mouth and proceeded by sawing the binding around his wrist with it.

"Hayato, stay away, I've got this"

"You're done Leo, Hina is taking you in"

"I just wish things could be different for the both of us"

"Gas: Phosgene" Leo chanted

"You're not talking Hina out of this again convict"

"It's over"

"What is?"

"I'm sorry, but there's just no other way"

"What are y-" she'd stopped walking as the gas began to take effect, "...Leo what did-" her eyes widened in terror while at the same time she clutched her throat as if something was suffocating her. She tried to say something but it was stuck in her throat and all that came out were short strangled gasps.

"Ssssh...now, there's no use fighting it" Leo said, now he was the one approaching her. Leo took her clawing hands as she looked at him, more terrified than ever with this almost godlike power she'd never known his friend to possess. He held her gently as she lost her balance and put her gently on the ground. Her terrified eyes still fixed at him, a tear from her brown eyes ran down her cheek. Despite of all that has happened Hina couldn't believe that this was happening to her again. This was too painful, of all people, of all her enemies, she was going to die at the hands of her own best friend. She looked at the bright chartreuse eyes one more time and they calmed her, it made her somehow believe that this was all just a dream and she'd wake up in her tree house anytime now.

* * *

"Leo come on! The ship's sailing" Hayato yelled

"SHIP!? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"

"the ship's that's going to take us out of here!"

"I THOUGHT THEY WERE ALL TRAPPED FROM THE ICE?"

"Fruit users"

"Ah, that explains a lot"

"WHOA!" Leo slipped as the 'ground' rocked. He looked around and saw that the frozen sea surface was sloping. It was getting unstable with some parts of it already cracked and some even gone completely. He looked back to see if Hina was alright and was relieved when he saw some of her subordinates have come to her aid. Her face now covered with gas mask, though covered, he knew she was looking right at him. He turned but then slipped again, this time his feet was unable to get any grip on the slippery surface. He looked down to where he was sliding and saw that there was nothing but the rolling sea that awaits him there.

"LEO!" Hayato realizing that his friend was not behind him has become alarmed. He heard his pal shout his name. He quickly hopped to the piece of ice that his friend was sliding from and quickly balanced it with his body weight. It was for the time being flat and stable again.

"LEO WE HAVE TO HURRY!"

"I-I'm sorry, I was..."

"COME ON!" Hayato had hopped to the other piece, meaning that he had no choice but to hurry if he doesn't want to slip again.

Both men ran side by side to balance the ice which was getting more and more shaky and unstable. Leo just now realized how dire the situation was. They were the 'bad guys' to board a ship and the Marines not wanting a single pirates to slip from their fingers were hot on their tails. Light sabers melted the ice all around them, in a different circumstance he'd have been awestruck it. He could see the ship on the edge of the thawing frozen sea, it truly was the sole ship left, if they didn't board that ship they'd be done for. Leo fastened his pace then, "soru" he kicked the air and flew. This was a make or break time. As a result of injuries he attained when he was training with the doc his lower body had never been as strong and durable as his upper body and he rarely use soru for anything other than surprising enemy like he did in earlier fight because it put great strain on his legs. If he didn't make it, he'd fall and the force alone would send him right through the ice and down below.

Hayato seeing that he could depend on his friend's pace, turned around and destroyed all remaining ice between them and the pursuing Marines with his whip-like katana. Effectively isolating them from the rest of the island.

Leo used his last energy launched himself with his soru onto the deck of the ship. With no energy to control his descent he landed on his back with a tremendous force. Luckily everybody cleared out the space just in time. It surprised everyone onboard for they thought he'd never make it. Several people started to clapping as a result while the rest chose to whisper among themselves.

"Wow man you're lucky! We nearly left you there" commented one of the spectators.

Someone kneeled to take a look at his face and grimaced, "did an admiral step on your face or something!?"

"Where's he? Where's Hayato?" Leo grabbed the guy's forearm

"Ye' mean the other guy? He didn't make it"

At that he immediately stood up and ran to the very back of the ship. There was Hayato running on the edge of the frozen sea still looking for a way out.

"HAYATO!"

It took him several calls for him to get his attention

"WHIP IT HERE! WHIP IT TO MY HAND, YOU CAN DO IT COME ON!"

"IT'S TOO FAR!"

"YOU CAN DO IT COME ON! OUR PROMISE REMEMBER IT, WE GOT IN TOGETHER WE GET OUT TOGETHER!"

It seemed to convince him as he whipped his katana back then lashed it at Leo's naked open hand. Leo caught it. People around him winced witnessing the scene. A man willingly risk his arm with just to save his friend. Despite his haki, blood started gushing from the grip but Leo's got it. He'd never let it go but it still wasn't enough.

The spectators all around him quickly ripped pieces of their clothes off and helped Leo pull the elongated katana and in a minute Hayato was onboard. Everybody started to cheer happily but unfortunately their happiness was short-lived as someone from the front shouted that the Gate of Justice has been successfully closed. There was no other ship but theirs. The cheering quickly stopped and the atmosphere became somber as people slumped on the floor, frustrated and some has already resigned to their fate. Some suggested the captain to shoot at the gate but he already knew better. They'd assumed that Whitebeard would survive and kept the gate open for everybody so all plans went to hell when that didn't happen. It was every man for himself.

"Cap'n this man wanted ta' speak t'you"

The bearded captain turned around and saw a tall and quite badly beaten-up fellow in front of him. His face seemed to have taken most of the hits as it was barely recognizable. They were dark blue, with swellings as big as tangerines, he was surprised this man could still stand here and tried to have a conversation with anybody.

"Tell your men to position the broadside cannon parallel to the thing, i'll take care of the rest. When I gave you the signal you order your men to fire at the gate"

The captain figuring that this was no time to be doubting a fellow escapee and that it was better than letting themselves become the Marines' pitiful cannon fodder he nodded and briskly ordered his helmsman to do what Leo'd ordered. Everybody stood up, thinking that the captain had finally managed to find a way out. Though they were not quite sure as to what the plan was since the gate was still closed the glimmer of hope was back in their eyes.

Leo climbed the yardarm and walked onto its edge. It was the closest point to reaching the surface of the mighty gate. Freedom awaits him behind this gate, this was the final push.

"Gylfen, please give me strength to do this" Leo prayed

He reached out his arm to touch the gate surface but it still wasn't close enough. He couldn't get any farther as the surface's gotten much narrower.

"STEP ON THE ROPE SON!" the captain shouted

"What?"

"THE ROPE UNDER IT, STEP ON IT" he looked down and found a series of rope beneath the yardarm.

He carefully put his feet one by one on the lifeline and once he got himself balanced he slowly moved to the very end, arms clutching the yardarm tightly.

He reached out but he still couldn't feel it. But it was close, very close. He inched himself closer now risking his balance, and he only pointed his left index finger as it was the closest. Then he felt it, the solid surface of the gate.

"Aqua regia"

Then a liquid of bright orange, resembling that of an orange juice spread from the tip of his index to the whole surface of the gate. Leo didn't doubt it'd spread, it was practically the first trick he learned about his acidic power, but he wasn't sure how long it'd take for it to work on this obviously top-of-the-class material, or if this would work at all. He looked at the opposite direction, at the crumbled Marine HQ, the sun was setting behind it as the evening grew near, and he caught the sight of several Marine battleships trailing behind. They'd catch up in less than a few minutes.

"Marines off the portside!" Leo alerted

Seeing that the acid's spread and absorbed into the surface especially the hinges Leo gave the captain the signal.

"VOLLEY FIRE!"

Leo quickly grabbed the yardarm tightly as the broadside cannons were fired simultaneously. The recoil alone was enough to rock the ship but the gunners wasted no time to reload the cannons as they quickly fired at the unrelenting gate again and again. For about 3 minutes the men had managed 20-30 salvoes in short equal intervals. After the barrage a horrific grating sound blared as the left side of the gate gave to the combined acid and cannonballs, and crashed onto the sea behind it. Leo could hear the clapping and the cheering from the deck. The Captain looked up at Leo and gave him the thumbs up.

"Hard-a-Port!" ordered the captain loudly.

Once he was back on the deck and sure of the success of his escape he quickly approached the Captain for he just remembered something: He was now alone, along with Hayato in this alien sea. With Crocodile gone he's got nothing to work on, if anybody here knows about this sea and its long-time residents it should be _him. Maybe _he could help him with his quest and provide the doctor's whereabouts. Leo smiled, it's been a long time, he never thought he'd take him up on his offer.

"Captain, where are we heading?"

"Why, New World of course!"

"B-but I need to go to Jaya!"


	16. Marco the Phoenix

**Hey guys, I hope you're still there, sorry for the really late chapter, I can't really promise you a steady update but I have so many plan for this story so I can at least guarantee you updates.**

**Enjoy**

The sound of the ocean, the fine sandy beach lining the gin colored water and the collection of palm trees dotting the beach, swaying in the breeze. It was beautiful. He just wanted to take a deep breath, lying on the soft soothing sand while having a cold one and have no single care in the world. That was his wish, having been woken up by a bright warm light just a moment ago. The same moment where Leo found out that he was in a bed, a fluffy, proper bed, and not those swinging, dank, rickety, hammocks he's been 'sleeping' on for these past couple of days. But, that was the least of his concern now. No. There was no cannon blasts around him, no smell of blood, no swishing of the swords and the sound of agony as it connected with a flesh. He just wanted to savor this moment, just in case he wake up, in the most unsavory way, anytime soon. Moments passed as he enjoyed the vista outside the window, still wondering, still hoping, begging to lord, not to let this one be a dream, and if it was, he prayed not to let him go back to that horrible existence. He truly wanted to believe that he's escaped from all the unthinkable hell that's been thrust upon him since he escaped that godforsaken prison, he needed this so bad, but this just couldn't be!

"You're awake," a sound, a soft feminine sound woke him up from his little torpor.

The sound belonged to a woman, no older than him, she was standing by the door, a tray of food in her hands. He also noticed that her hands were trembling, although slightly. She was beautiful, she fits right in on this dream, with that tropical look. The fair skin, long wavy brunette hair that flowed about her very smoothly, and the big chocolate eyes. Curves in the right place too, he reckoned.

"Ah…wh-where am I?" Leo asked as he propped himself up on the bed.

"D-DON'T move!" still with the slight tremble.

"It's okay, you don't need to be scared of me," Leo looked up with his best nice-guy face to reassure her.

"No, of course," she said nervously, "It's just that the wound…it just might open your wound," she put the tray down on a bedside table and took a bottle of pills from it. "Wound? What wound?!" The woman ignored him and took some pills from the bottle.

"Wait. What is it?"

"Painkillers,"

"I don't need that," Leo said, it came out like a child refusing to eat vegetables in front of his parents. But truly, being a logia, he's several 'privileges' that even other types of fruit users don't have. That includes instant-healing. But no, he doesn't want her to find out about that just yet. He doesn't even know her name, she could be a jailer looking to sedate him and bring him back to Impel Down, or she could just be something out of his imagination, something that his mind has been most eager to make up, every time he felt he could no longer bear the state of celibacy forced upon him in his confinement.

"It's your dehydrated brain talking again," she said as she poured some water into a cup.

"Umm…yeah…it must be," he took the pill and the cup, deciding to play the act.

"So…" Leo started, putting down the cup, "you haven't answered my question, where am I, and who are you? Is this a dream?"

After a long pause, she sighed, "you don't remember anything at all do you?"

"All I remembered was…wait…" it came back to him now, he was so preoccupied with his 'dream thoughts' he forgot what had gotten him into this 'dream' in the first place. "The ship…it capsized, and then, after that, I don't know, I can't swim so this must be heaven and you…you must be the angel."

She smiled, "flattering," then she pulled out a thermometer and gestured him to open his mouth and, without due regard, shoved it down his mouth.

"Unfortunately for you, no, you're still in the world of the living, this is the summer island of Siracusa, and as for your condition, I found you last night washed up on the shore, lifeless, with a piece of wood jutting out from your stomach. Seeing that you had a massive bleeding, and that it needed me countless stitches just to close the wound. I'd say you're doing pretty good. I thought it'd have taken you at least days to wake up. We still have to worry about infections though."

"I guess I was lucky huh? That the waves brought me ashore?" he said, it came out a little weird with the thing still in his mouth.

"Quite lucky indeed, considering that your little pirate ship sunk on the opposite side of the island. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you swam all the way around the island. But of course, nobody can swim with a wood sticking out of his belly like that…right?"

"You're saying someone brought me here?" _It must be Hayato, but where the hell is that guy?_

She just sat there, perhaps expecting him to know anything. That he was that much of a man-eating beast, to have survived swimming all the way here with wood impaled in his guts. And in a way, he guessed, he was sort of a beast, but better not to spook the young woman.

"I don't know, I don't remember any of it."

Leo caught some distant look in her eyes, but she quickly covered it up, "If you're wondering where your pirate friends are, don't worry, they're staying in the town." He somehow doubted, 'staying in the town,' to be the most accurate description to be applied to a boatload of barbaric pirates.

"Well. You've lost a lot of blood tonight, I should leave you to rest," she said as she stood up and left.

"Hey wait,"

"What's your name? My name's Leo,"

"The name is Isabel," she said, only turning her head, she then closed the door.

* * *

Later that day, she came to his room and told him she was going to the town to buy some meds, he then decided it was then the best time to sneak out, and find Hayato. Sometimes, he felt that his life has become more of a puzzle, with every time he opened his eyes, he always find himself shrugging his confused head. If he didn't solve these screwed up puzzles soon, he thought, he was going to get crazy.

He put on a pair of slippers by the bed, and climbed out the window. After sniffing in the air, taking the fresh tropical air in, he walked around the house, an elegant, two storied, tropical styled house (Italian) and silently walked down the path to what he assumed to be the way to the town. The house itself was a bit secluded, resting on top of a hill, surrounded by low-lying trees. There was a small orchard of olives in front of the house, a house made of glass next to it. He didn't bother to check it out. It didn't take him long to notice the small town, as the hill gave him a perfect vantage point for spectacular view of the entire island, even down to the curves and twists of the coastline.

After a long walk, he could finally see the first civilization, the first after he broke out of prison, or after a closer inspection, what's left of it. There was no sign that anybody lived there. The cobblestone streets lay deserted and the town was eerily quiet. He took in the surrounding, the houses were similar to Isabel's. The warm color and the tropical style. Most were also two-storied. As he walked deeper into the town he reached the town's plaza where there were several stores flanking it. Still, there was no people in sight. If it wasn't for this fact, he might have enjoyed the town a little bit. With the classical fountain in the center of the square and the classical façade (Roman) of the buildings around it, it kind of reminded him of the mini-version of Old City Thule back home, during summer that is, other seasons it just looked gloomy and dark.

He couldn't be walking farther than two steps into the store when he heard a sound that was all too familiar to him. Not in any mood to cause any a riot, he did what normal people would have done. He raised his hands up. Despite of this, he was a bit relieved to know that this town wasn't completely deserted like he'd originally thought earlier. This town might not even be deserted at all! Leo thought, after remembering reading somewhere that people in the tropics have this thing called 'siesta' where they take nap for hours. Yes, this might just be as silly as that! Leo thought.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your nap sir," Leo muttered to whoever it was pointing a gun at him.

"Are you one of them?"

"One of what?"

"Don't play around with me! Are you one of those pirates?!" Leo quickly realized what had happened in this town. Indeed, the pirates were 'staying' in the town.

"I'm just a tourist! I think I slept through the night and just woke up this afternoon, with all my things stolen and the whole room looted, what the hell happened around here?! This certainly isn't in my itinerary!"

"You're lying,"

"Have you ever seen a pirate with pajamas before?!" Leo argued, looking around looking for the man with the gun.

He heard several whispers and he saw him. He was hiding behind a dresser, he looked terrified. What he assumed as his wife was behind him, holding his husband's hand. "Fine. I believe you. We don't have much choice anyway."

"Good," Leo said he lowered his hands, "now won't you tell me what happened around here?"

After both men have settled down, the man began telling his story. How the pirates, without any warning, in the dark of night, raided and overwhelmed the town. How they took the mayor as a hostage so as to ensure the townsfolk silence. Besides banning anybody from walking out of their homes, they've also confiscated all den den mushi, making the town completely under their control.

"Where are the pirates now?"

"They're in the basilica, with the mayor, many pirates are guarding the place, you better go back to your home,"

"Yeah, I should, but first, do you have clothes my size?"

* * *

The basilica wasn't hard to find. It was right on the edge of the town's main avenue. The large bricked dome being the most prominent feature. He had no trouble getting inside as the pirates greeted him and even cheered for they thought he was surely gone. Unbeknownst to them was, how infuriated he was at this barbaric, cowardly act of his 'comrades', and he let that be acknowledged by bashing the huge door open, nearly throwing them off their hinges. "CAN I SPEAK TO THE CAPTAIN PLEASE?" he blared. Everybody inside the hall was silent, nobody dared to make a peep knowing full well what that would cause to their wellbeing. Minutes, and still, nobody. "CAPTAIN!"

A seemingly generic pirate guy in the background suddenly stepped up. He made an act of looking around as the rest of the pirates gulped. "You can talk to me,"

The guy in question, was lean and short, has a yellow-blonde hair which shape resembled a starfish, and for a supposedly ordinary guy, he looked extremely confident, with no hint of fear whatsoever. The guy looked at him straight in the eyes. "You must be the acid man everyone's been talking about, if you're planning to cause some riot here then you're out of luck,"

"I just want to speak to the Captain,"

"Okay, that would be a problem, the Captain is dead, and you barging in here like this, in the middle of his memorial service, you're lucky to be alive."

"Wait, he drowned too?" asked Leo, getting even more confused. The starfish guy bunched up his eyebrows as he turned his head to his fellow pirates asking them what this guy was talking about.

"Oh, him, unfortunately, yes, he drowned with the ship. We're praying for him too."

"So, you're his replacement?"

"Not quite, here, why don't we shake hands and do a proper introduction." The guy playfully said as he offered his hand for a shake.

Leo looked at the man warily as he extended his hand, just in case this guy was trying to pull a dastardly trick on him, "Leo, just Leo,"

"Marco, I'm the Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates,"

He paused and was a bit amused that for a supposed brute, he didn't recognize the name.

"Nice to meet you, just Leo, now take a seat, we're going to continue,"

"W-wait! Hey!" but the guy, Marco, already disappeared among the dispersing crowd, and before Leo knew it, he was the last guy standing in the solemn hall.

* * *

"You're still here," Marco said, approaching him. There again, the cool, I-don't-care-a-single-thing face, despite of tearing up a bit, earlier.

"That was a good speech, and I'm really sorry for your loss, he seemed like a good guy, but you and your men need to get out of this island, right now, this isn't their war, they don't need to suffer like this,"

He chuckled, "to where? Where do you suggest we go?"

"I don't care where you go, go back to your island!"

"As much as we want that, we can't, Leo, all three Admirals are guarding the Sabaody waters really tight, there's no way, no way, we can cross to New World with this kind of heat,"

Leo was silent, "you see Leo, we have no choice, we either lay low or be sunk in the middle of the ocean, which one would you rather have!?"

"I'd rather not involve innocent civilians in this!"

"God, did you even listen to what I said earlier? Look, whatever you think of us, we're not some kind of lowlife, barbarian savages, we guarantee that nobody in the town gets harmed, that's my word, and you can tell this to whoever it is that told you these stories about us,"

Leo nodded, "and they can get out of their home."

"Do you really want to jeopardize our chance of freedom by taking _their_ side? This is not over yet Leo, they're still out there, regaining their strength. They know we're barely surviving right now, all it takes is one guy talking to bring the posse here and blow us all to oblivion!"

"What do you mean 'our'!? I'm free! I can take a boat now and go anywhere I like, you can go on playing the big boss in this small island and blow up all the Marines you like, but I'm out of here! You're not dragging me down into your own mess."

"My own mess," he muttered. Marco pulled out a scroll of paper and searched through it one by one. "Leo…Leo…where is it…ah…here it is, recognize the face…sorry, faces?"

"What the hell is it?"

He dropped the papers, which turned out to be wanted posters, on the floor. "This came just this morning, they're spreading this all over the world. THIS is your OWN mess."

"'Two-Faced' Rendish, 90 million belis," above his name was a picture of him, during that fateful night where he was caught. He didn't even remember being photographed that night, it was his face, he only knew that much. He was laughing directly at the camera maniacally, what seemed to be a second face surreally poking out from his left side of the face, the 'faces' overlapped each other. He also noticed that he was wearing the tie that the doctor had picked out for him in it. He looked just like a proper super-villain in it. It reminded him of a character in one of his comics. This wasn't good for his freedom, not good at all, and he thanked Magellan for this. And not far from his poster, was none other than his forgotten friend, Hayato Munakata, or in this, he was named as 'Hayato, the 24th Ronin,' he didn't know what any of those mean, but it could be something worse than being called 'Two-Faced' because it landed him a whooping bounty of 150 million belis.

"I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you, but Leo, we both are not that different. The question is, do you want to fight alone or be our nakamas, so that we can fight them together."

"No, I'm not like you pirates!"

"Stop acting like you're innocent, because when you have that much price on your head, you're either a sadistic maniac or a very damn good liar, either way, you're still not a saint!"

"You don't understand, I was framed alright!"

He chuckled, "hahaha let me tell you something, everybody in Impel Down sing the same song. You killed, no, you DESTROYED, 61 people, 4 of them were Kings, 3 Queens, 27 other royalties, 2 World Nobles, one of them was your girlfriend, looks to me you're worse than a red-nosed clown! He, at least treats his girl right!"

"Don't mention her! Don't you EVER DARE to mention her with your filthy mouth!"

Marco took a step back, it wasn't because of the pointless empty threat, no, he was used to that, but the fact that the words didn't come out of Leo's mouth. "WHAT THE HELL!? THAT WASN'T ME!" A face, protruded from the side of Leo's face, "long time no see brother," Leo glanced to his side as if it would enable him to see the other 'face' of his. "You take me over like this, we both are gonna die! You KNOW it."

The other face snickered, "not if you want it too, we don't,"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"You said you loved her, but YOU NEVER HAD THE GUTS TO PROTECT HER!" as he said that, the faces merged and became one again, but Marco knew it was the 'other' Leo. He just looked at the astonishing transformation before him where the power of the Acid Acid no Mi was in full view of the whole spectator. Luckily the ceiling was high enough to contain the growing bulk of the monster.

"GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" Marco ordered his subordinates.

"What about you!?"

"I promised him I'd protect this village, so I have to keep my word,"

"Then we shall stay here,"

"NO, there's enough deaths already,"

"Exactly,"

Marco looked at his subordinate, those words, they reminded him of someone, he said the same thing when Thatch had been murdered, a mischievous stubborn guy who he wished was still here with him, just like the old days. His thoughts were quickly put aside as he dodged a gigantic 'acid punch.' It didn't escape his attention that the punch has created an acidic crater that penetrated the floor and bored through the foundation of the building. "This ridiculous guy is basically a rookie version of Akainu," Marco muttered.

He has fought enough logia users to know their weaknesses. Haki. The fact that this thing was giant-sized only made it easier.

Marco transformed into his phoenix form and flew towards the monstrous figure. Monster-Leo, not knowing anything about his foe's power was blinded by the bright flame and could not have anticipated Marco's power as Marco delivered a spinning kick to his head, midair.

Without giving his enemy to recover, he moved around the hall in order to distract the monster. When Monster-Leo launched a punch, Marco was ready and used the opportunity to launch himself at his foe's unprotected right. He was successful at landing another powerful blow to the foe's head. "Fools and logia, they don't go well. Your intimidation, unfortunately, only works on the weakest of minds."

The monster roared then turned his back on him as he resorted to another method. Destructing the building and bury all of them in its ruins. Marco knew this and this time he made sure that this would be the last blow. He targeted the back of his foe's head, he swung his leg, but…it missed as Monster-Leo ducked. "WHO'S THE FOOL NOW?" He attempted to grab Marco and he did. Only, he forgot that he was liquid and could only watch as his foe slipped from his hands easily. Thanks to his strong haki, the monster's acid didn't affect him. The monster was so bewildered he didn't realize Marco hovering behind him.

"YOU ARE, BITCH!" Marco shouted from behind him. Monster-Leo looked back and was only fast enough to look at the incoming kick that sent him into the air. It was followed by the 'oohs and aahs' of his comrades. "Let's hope the sea's that way."

* * *

Not far from the carnage, in the tranquility of the beach, Hayato was praying in front of a little shrine dedicated to his dear departed friend, Leo of North Blue. He's spent hours looking for him in the depth and darkness of sea, within the first one hour, he was hoping that his friend was still alive, when two hours have passed, he just hoped to find the body so that he could give him a proper funeral so as to make sure his spirit wouldn't come back and haunt the seas as funayurei (water deity), but he knew it was already far too late now, this was the best he could do for him, may the water spirit have mercy on his soul. A dark cloud loomed over him, only just for a second, as it hovered, or rather, flew over him. He looked back and was just in time to see the thing splashed down into the sea. It was followed by a bright blue flame which landed on the beach, nearby, and sprayed him with sands. After hurriedly wiping the sands from his face, Hayato could see that it was a bird. A magical flaming bird!

"L-Leo, is that you? Are you coming down from the heaven to bid me farewell?" Hayato couldn't believe his eyes, a creature like this was certainly sent by God Himself. He was even more shocked when the bird transformed into a human-form. A human with a starfish on his head. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I have a good news and a bad news," Hayato still couldn't overcome his shock just stood there, mouth gaping.

"Good news is, the thing that just dropped into the sea, he's your friend, bad news is, he's not in heaven yet."

Silence.

"What are you waiting for? A freaking written order?! GO GO GO!"

**Marco's speech in the funeral ceremony is skipped here, but you can find it in my page, titled as 'Rememberance'**


	17. The Offer

The day was beautiful as usual in the little fishing town of Siracusa. The warmth of the summer sun shimmered down the island and out to the ocean. It was getting dark, the sun was losing much of its heat and it would sink further beneath the wide and endless horizon leaving the little town at the mercy of the darkness. The cool breeze swayed the palm trees near the coast, this would normally be followed by small dots of fishing fleet in the horizon as the fishermen used the sea breeze to help them sail back home after a long day at sea. But not even one boat can be seen today. One quick look at the deserted dock explains why. Between the warehouses of the docks and the open sea, all the boats were tied nicely to the piers. The dock was completely bare of any activity, there was nothing but the sound of the calm small waves breaking onto the beach. Beyond that, scrunched, windblown newspapers flew past the deserted avenue that leads to the town's square. Every shops, cafes, restaurants, theater lining the main avenue which stretches from the docks to the grand basilica stood vacant. This afternoon, the bell of the grand church would not ring to guide the fishermen home. Today, it only served to heighten the sense of surrealism many of the citizens were feeling that the barren boulevard of their town and its surroundings have been forcibly cut off from the rest of the world. The sense of desolation, however, was interrupted for a moment as one former samurai broke the surface of the gloomy water.

"Did you get him?" shouted one calm looking man ashore.

The man just nodded as he wobbled to the coast with his friend in tow.

"Come on," the man muttered as he pumped the chest of the unconscious guy. The starfish-haired man just stood on the sideline.

After a few attempts, the guy coughed violently as he regained his consciousness, he looked up and saw his partner's relieved face.

"Welcome back Leo," Hayato kept his cool manner, despite of the huge celebration and relief behind his mask.

"Hayato…how did…?" Leo then heard footsteps and immediately looked around.

"Hi, remember me?" the starfish guy's face loomed over him.

It didn't take him long to remember that hairstyle, "YOU!" At that, Hayato quickly faced the guy and swiftly unsheathed his katana.

The starfish guy raised his hands, "there's no need for violence…" he smirked, "after all you are no use to me dead."

"What the hell did you say!?"

"Look, do you want to get thrown to the sea again!?" the starfish guy tried to make his point across to the guys, that a guy who can send somebody like Leo flying was no ordinary guy.

"You saw the posters, I can offer you shelter in return for your cooperation."

"What's he talking about?" Hayato asked.

"The man wants me in his crew."

"So that's why you were fighting?"

"I didn't even remember that part."

"That doesn't make any sense…" Hayato protested.

"Guys, guys, hello, back to topic please, I need your answers now, the offer stands for you too swordsman."

Leo thought for some moment and he's decided that he couldn't quite imagine himself being as a swashbuckling pirate.

"Sorry Marco. You're a great Captain, and if it weren't for you, I guess, I'd have destroyed half the town, but…the thing is, I've got some things to settle first."

Despite the cool on his face, Leo could still catch a hint of disappointment on his face. For a moment there Leo thought that this was a bad idea, a mistake to continue on this vengeful path and that he should just take his offer, but then he convinced himself that it had to be this way. Those guys that framed him and killed her had to pay and he couldn't just forget about that no matter what.

"Is this about that set up you've been going on about? You're really telling the truth?"

"It's complicated, I just don't want you to get involved in this."

"If the Marines really is responsible for that then we can help you Leo, heck, they have just killed our Captain and our best friends, there's no reason for you to think that you're alone in this. We want payback just as much as you do Leo."

"It's not the Marines, it's bigger than that, and don't ask me where i know about this."

Marco looked confused, and he should be, as there was not many organizations or bodies that were bigger' than the Marines. Except…

"Who?"

"You ever heard of the World Noble?"

Marco was taken aback by that, it crossed his mind but he never expected him to really say those words. He managed to keep his cool though that didn't stop the chill he was feeling right now.

"Are you serious?"

"This is why you better stay out of this."

"This is a very dark and dangerous path you're taking here Leo, you must understand that strong will alone is not going to cut it."

There was a moment of silence before Leo continued.

"When you were in the church, you said your former Captain has become the way he was because his daughter, that he loved her so much that even years after her passing he still look for that cure no matter what the odds were?"

Marco just looked up at him knowing where this was going.

"I'm looking for that cure…and I know exactly what it is."

"You won't make it. The Admirals, the whole World Government, everybody will be against you."

"Then at the very least…I'm not going to regret it one bit."

"There's no convincing you out of this is there?"

"Nope."

"Well, I guess this is goodbye then." Marco offered his hand.

"Good luck Marco." Leo said, but then he realized that Marco was not letting go of his hand.

"Be careful, these guys, they are nasty."

"I will." Leo said as he wrestled his hand back.

"Let's go Hayato."

The two men continued down the shore to the dock, Hayato caught up beside him, still apparently having difficulty taking it all in. He just couldn't believe that his friend would just outright refuse an offer of help from what could possibly be one of the most powerful Pirates in the planet. Knowing his pal's stubbornness though, he shouldn't have been this surprised, he thought. "Leo wait! Are you sure about this? He may know something."

"No doubt about that, but I don't trust him."

_That again._ Hayato thought. His friend still have that mindset that all Pirates were some mischievous rascals that couldn't be trusted, due to his relatively sheltered upbringing. But by assuming that he inadvertently put himself in the same category as those people, but he kept denying that. He truly believed that he was better than them.

"So, where are we going?"

"We're going to get a boat and get the hell away from here."

"To where?"

"Jaya."

"Jaya?" Hayato said, with a tone of surprise.

"Leo, do you know anything about Grand Line?"

"You can't survive a single trip in Grand Line with those small fishing boats!"

"I know that, but as long as I have you, there should be no problem. After all, you grew up in this sea right? You should know it like the back of your hand."

Hayato would like to point out to his friend that his hometown was on the other side of the Red Line, so the sea was quite different, and that citizen of Wano Country was forbidden from going out of the country, so he had very little knowledge or source about navigating Grand Line except from the legends and folklores of his country, but he refrained from it due to the big news that he was about to tell his friend now.

"Leo, wait, I need to tell you something."

Leo didn't seem to hear it, "listen, can you go around the dock and find the best boat in here? I'm going to be away for a while ok?"

"Where are you going?"

"I just need to meet somebody before we go."

"You made friends on this island? Very subtle."

"She saved me from drowning if you must know. I just cannot go away like this."

"Ok, but first listen to me, I've got to tell you something."

"Can't it wait? We really don't have much time."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Marines are going to be here in any second, I'm sure of that. Marco said something about the Marines blocking the way to the other part of the Grand Line. They wouldn't just do that to prevent them from going back to their stronghold, they want to keep them boxed in, so the Marines must be sweeping island after island in Grand Line to look for that guy right now. That's why we need to get out of here fast, real fast." Without waiting for a response Leo quickly disappeared, leaving Hayato quite speechless.

* * *

In minutes Leo was already back in Isabel's home. The lights were already on meaning she was home. He just now realized that he hadn't think of a story to explain his disappearance, and also his super-fast healing ability.

"Leo? You came back." Isabel came through from the back, she looked worried. _Gosh, even when worried she still looked good!_ Leo thought and felt sad that he had to leave her in the island alone with the pirates. Marco was a good man but he doubted he really had the same presence as the late Captain.

"Where the hell have you been? You can't just wander around like that!"

"Err…I just need to report to the Captain is all."

"H-how can you even move with a wound like that?!"

Leo just stood there awkwardly, trying to find any good reason for it and then he found it, the only thing that he could think of in the given amount of time, "well, they don't call us New World Pirates for nothing, I've been through far worse condition than this. We've got tricks for these kind of things you see." He praised his brilliant mind for coming up with it.

But she'd have none of that, "New World Pirate or not, you still can't go around like that, let me take a look at your wound, it must look horrible right now." She reached for his pajamas button but he quickly stopper her, knowing that there would be no such wound in his stomach.

"I had the Pirate doctor take a look at the wound earlier, so there's no need really…he said you've done a very good job though."

She just looked up piercingly at him, still not fully convinced.

"Did he get you vitamins too?"

"Uhmm…no? The ship was totally wrecked."

"Then I'm going to get one for you, wait a moment."

"It's not necessary really, Isabel, you don't have to, I just came here to say goodbye."

She came back with a glass of water and a pill, from the color it looked like the one she had him swallow earlier.

"You're going?" She asked as she handed the glass and the pill. Her face looked sad. He didn't understand why she should be. _Doesn't it mean her island would be Pirate-free once more?_ He thought as he swallowed the pill with no second thought.

"Why the sad face?"

"No, you just seem like a really nice guy, you seem different than the rest is all."

"You seem to have no problem trusting people you just met."

She smirked at that, but somehow there was something off about it. She exhaled,"…oh the irony."

"Excuse me?" _She couldn't be…_

"Difficult to concentrate? Here let me take your glass." She took the glass and put it away.

Leo put his hand on his head, he didn't know where this sudden sleepiness came from. "Wait…why am I suddenly feeling…" before Leo could finish the sentence he was already lying out cold on the floor.

Isabel bent down and poked the side of Leo's face to see if he wasn't faking it, then smiled when he didn't respond.

"Maybe you are the one who's too trusting Mr. Two Face," Isabel said as she unbuttoned the top part of her blouse to reveal the striped uniform of Impel Down.

She reached down beneath the front of her uniform and produced a mini den den mushi. She then dialed it. There was a 'click' sound on the other end signaling that somebody was taking the call.

"Listen very carefully, I know where Marco the Phoenix and his goons are hiding."

**This chapter was actually a part of bigger story, but I decided to stop it right here because the second part still needs some improvement and I don't have the time for that right now. It'll be ready in a week's time.**


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